Assigning an Internet domain to a user as the user registers with a server

ABSTRACT

A method wherein a server computer assigns a domain to a user, and uses direct domain to domain content transfers, and not web-based linking, to enable a first user&#39;s content to be directly associated with a second user&#39;s content. Steps include registering and assigning a first user identification to the first user requesting registration; assigning a first domain to the first registered user; receiving a second request from a second user to register with the server computer; registering the second user; assigning a second domain to the second registered user; managing the assigned first domain by assigning a first content provided by the first user to the first domain; managing the assigned second domain by assigning a second user provide second content to the second domain; receiving a request from a client for the first content at the first domain; and fetching and returning the first content from the first domain and the second content from the second domain to the client, wherein fetching and returning is performed by the server computer without using web-based linking.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No.13/157,291, filed 09-Jun.-2011, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S.application Ser. No. 12/817,755 filed 17-Jun.-2010, which issued as U.S.Pat. No. 7,987,139 on 26-Jul.-2011, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 12/504,555, filed 16-Jul.-2009, which is abandoned,which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/677,242, filed21-Feb.-2007, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,580,858 on 25-Aug.-2009,all of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

In the field of electrical computers and digital processing systems:multicomputer data transferring, a method for managing the resources ofthe computers connected by a computer network or of the network itselfinvolving domain assignment to a plurality of users or business contenthosts at the time the content host is registered with the servercomputer and without any costs to the registered content host.

BACKGROUND ART

Currently, the process of assigning domains to a user or content host isa slow process, complex and expensive. The existing process starts witha user searching for an available domain name from companies that act asregistrar for the desired domain. If the domain name is available, thenthe user proceeds by reserving the desired domain name and paying anannuity fee.

After the domain name is reserved and the annuity fee paid, the userproceeds to contract with a hosting company to reserve server space forhosting a website, at which time the user becomes a content host. Theuser typically pays a monthly hosting fee. After the server space isreserved with the hosting company and the fee paid, the hosting companyprovides the user with an IP (Internet Protocol) address for the user'swebsite. Next, the user creates a website by uploading web accessibledocuments to the website. A final stage involves the user accessing theregistrar to correlate the web's site IP address with the domain name,so that the user's web site using that domain name is available to thepublic. The user's website is typically assigned an access address inthe form of “www.domain.com.”

In each step of the process of assigning a domain name, there istypically a waiting time that the user experiences, a cost that the userincurs, and technical complexity that the user must navigate. Once awebsite is up and functioning, the website may only supply the contentsuploaded by the user to that specific server space assigned to thedomain name. There is no easy way for the user to supply content fromother content hosts using other websites. Preclusion of such easysharing of content had been considered necessary for web site security.If one website (first website) needs to offer contents hosted by anotherwebsite (second website) the first website needs to create a web service(first web service) and the second website needs to have a web service(second web service) as well as to enable the first web site's first webservice to call the second website's second web service and request andreceive data; then, once the data is received, passing the data to auser.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

A method wherein a server computer assigns a domain to a user, and usesdirect domain to domain content transfers, and not web-based linking, toenable a first user's content to be directly associated with a seconduser's content. Steps include registering and assigning a first useridentification to the first user requesting registration; assigning afirst domain to the first registered user; receiving a second requestfrom a second user to register with the server computer; registering thesecond user; assigning a second domain to the second registered user;managing the assigned first domain by assigning a first content providedby the first user to the first domain; managing the assigned seconddomain by assigning a second user provide second content to the seconddomain; receiving a request from a client for the first content at thefirst domain; and fetching and returning the first content from thefirst domain and the second content from the second domain to theclient, wherein fetching and returning is performed by the servercomputer without using web-based linking.

Technical Problem

Current methods of assigning a domain name to a user, who is aprospective content host (also known as a web host), do not permitassignment of the domain name at the time the user registers with aserver computer. Once the user processes a request for a domain name,the succeeding steps leading to the user becoming a content host withcontent available to the public, are costly and technically complicated.The domain name acquisition and succeeding steps need to be made muchless costly, simpler and automatic so that it is immediately implementedby the server computer when the user registers with the server computer.The system needs to solve security problems to make it a simple processto enable the user to retrieve data from another user's web site.

The Internet is becoming more personal every day and with the explosionof social websites with a plurality of interconnected users, there is apressing and unfilled need to enable each user to have a personalizeddomain assigned to the user so as to enable that user have a permanentInternet address, and a hosting space for the user to store files,programs, and all kinds of electronic content that belong to the user.

Today, many users are interconnected in an environment like a socialnetwork. So, if a domain is assigned to each such user, a majortechnical impediment to such users exists. Such user is not currentlyable to retrieve and present content obtained from other interconnectedusers. Present methods of retrieving and presenting content from anotherweb site involve the use of web services and this mechanism is costlyand very complex, requiring programming. Also, each such user has tohave a web service associated with the user's hosting space at thesocial network website, which raises a formidable problem: securitymatters dictate that the social network website prohibit use of webservice by users.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

The method fosters the creation of a new software industry by offering apersonalized hosting space to each registered user and allowing eachregistered user to have a domain name associated with the user's hostingspace at the moment the user registers with the server.

The present invention solves the aforementioned problems in the priorart by enabling each user to have a personalized hosting space in anenvironment like social network with the server computer assigning adomain name to the user's personalized hosting space at the user'sregistration time. The method will further enable users to beinterconnected and to access and share content from each other by havinga single database that is available to all of the registered users.

The present method enables each user to have a personalized domain nameassigned to the user at the time of the user's registration. The servercomputer automates this process without any cost to the user orrequirement that the user know or implement any technical steps. Thepresent method opens the door to a new software industry that enableseach user to have personalized web space for storing e-content belongingto the user. The present method enables each user to have such contentunder the user's control without requiring any technical effort from theuser. The present method will allow domain names to be assigned tocomputing devices where a device may be located on the Internet based onits domain name. For example, devices like a refrigerator or any otherkind of home/office of electronic devices.

The present method will enable non-active devices to become activedevices by permitting the devices to directly access other resources orother devices on the Internet. For instance, a refrigerator may be ableto place orders for groceries and other re-supply items without anyinterference from the user. With a domain name assigned to theelectronic device, all the electronic device needs is Internetconnection to be able to connect with other electronic devices, personaldevices or server computers, or for other devices to connect with theelectronic device through its web domain name and access its contents orexecute is programs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in the form a part ofthis specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and,together with the description, serve to explain the principles of theinvention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a method for compensating a hosting site, a contentprovider and a content reader when a content distributor suppliesuser-provided contents along with paid content to a hosting site.

FIG. 2 illustrates three tables containing meta data for a website,clicker and content writer related to the method illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates a further explanation of the method of FIG. 1 wherecontent is hosted by a plurality of sites and a plurality of usersinteracting with the content.

FIG. 4 illustrates dynamic and virtual content, advertising and userinteractions with them.

FIG. 5 illustrates client/server communication over the Internet/Networkand an electronic representation of a computing device.

FIG. 6 illustrates a link presented to users to click on paid contentand tables for tracking parties involved in generating the revenuestream.

FIG. 7 is a logic diagram for using the link presented in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a logic diagram for tracking valid clicks based on anencrypted IP (Internet Protocol) address.

FIG. 9 is a logic diagram for tracking un-logged-in user interactionwith paid content.

FIG. 10 is a logic diagram for tracking the length a user stays in a webpage.

FIG. 11 illustrates a method to obtain an answer from a user to verifyuser's reading of the page content.

FIG. 12 illustrates a method for a user to suggest related content to beassociated with the content page.

FIG. 13 illustrates another method of including the user suggestedrelated content to the content page.

FIG. 14 illustrates another method of including the user suggestedrelated content to the content page wherein content to be suggestedresides at a remote location.

FIG. 15 illustrates another method of requesting user suggested remotecontent.

FIGS. 16-17 illustrates a method of finding content related to thecontent being viewed by a user.

FIG. 18 illustrates using a prior geographical location visited by theuser to target content for the user in a future visit to the system.

FIG. 19 illustrates the step of deriving a classification group from aplurality of content pages.

FIG. 20 illustrates the step of deriving a classification group form asingle content page.

FIG. 21 illustrates the presentation of a content page that includes theuser's requested content and a related content when the related contentis based on a common classification group between the content page andother content pages previously viewed by the user.

FIG. 22 illustrates the step of targeting content to a user based on theuser's personal information.

FIG. 23 illustrates the step of targeting content based on a contentpage having contents provided by multiple content providers.

FIG. 24 illustrates the step of targeting content to a user based on theuser's acquaintance's personal information.

FIG. 25 illustrates the step of enabling content from one user to bepropagated to another user based on the other user's election to receivethe content.

FIG. 26 illustrates a sponsored apparatus to be given away free ofcharge and subsidized by contents presented or sold to the user.

FIG. 27 illustrates a method of distributing copyrighted content byenabling users to exchange contents without copyright infringement.

FIG. 28 continues to illustrate a method of distributing copyrightedcontent by enabling users to exchange contents without copyrightinfringement.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings that show, by way of illustration, specificembodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodimentsare described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art topractice the invention. It is to be understood that the variousembodiments of the invention, although different, are not necessarilymutually exclusive. For example, a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described herein in connection with one embodiment may beimplemented within other embodiments without departing from the spiritand scope of the invention. In addition, it is to be understood that thelocation or arrangement of individual elements within each disclosedembodiment may be modified without departing from the spirit and scopeof the invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, notto be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the invention describedherein is defined by the appended claims, appropriately interpreted,along with the full range of equivalents to which the claims areentitled. In the drawings, like numerals refer to the same or similarfunctionality throughout the several views.

The present invention may be embodied as a method or a computer programproduct. Accordingly, the present invention may take a form of anentirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software andhardware. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product on a computer-readable storage medium havingcomputer-readable program code means embodied in the medium. Anynon-transitory computer readable medium may be utilized including butnot limited to: hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, ormagnetic devices.

There are many ways of placing contents in a web site, by having aserver as the host of the contents and the advertising or registered websites presenting them to a user through a web service (a program in theserver to allow the server to serve a requesting computer with servicesand/or contents), thus, the contents on the websites can be requestedfrom the server and saved locally (cached) or they can be presentedvirtually to interfacing users. And in either case, the server does theinserting of paid contents into the content page. The terms server andserver computer as used herein are synonymous and refer to hardwaretogether with the software needed to operate the hardware.

Participating parties in the income-share program are preferablyregistered with the server providing the contents. Once a user clicks onadvertising, the server charges the click to an advertiser. The serveralso allocates a commission (some fraction of the charge to theadvertiser) to the user who clicked to the web site hosting theadvertisement, that is, the paid content. The server also allocates acommission to the content provider. Preferably, a mechanism is used tostop fraud where a user repetitively clicks on a paid content for thepurpose of earning multiple commissions. The invention may be used wherethere is a sale of good or service that is concluded by a user and thecommission is allocated to the content provider of the non-paid contentdisplayed with the good or service.

Thus, a preferred method of web site development is based on advertisingrevenue sharing, This method includes steps of: receiving paid contentfrom an advertiser; receiving non-paid content from a provider subjectto a condition that the provider may receive no compensation for thenon-paid content; combining the paid content and the non-paid content ona content page; registering a user to interact with the content page;sending the content page for display on a computer operated by the user;calculating a number equaling all interactions of the user with the paidcontent; receiving payment from the advertiser for said number; andpaying the provider based on a fraction of the payment.

A preferred method includes a step of tracking a link validation byreceiving at the server a request for content from the client device.Each such request comprises the IP address of the user's computer, alsoreferred to as the client device, the user being synonymous with client.The server encrypts the client device's IP address and sends theencrypted IP address in a subsequent content page to the client device;the encrypted IP address may be sent in a link or in a form element.When the user contacts the server again, the server receives theencrypted IP address from the client device, as well as the client'sactual IP address of the client device's location, the server thendecrypts the encrypted IP address and compares the decrypted IP addresswith the client's actual IP address, if the two IP address match, thenthe server validates the user's interactions; and if not, the serverdisregards the user's interaction.

Another preferred method includes a step of tracking a user'sinteraction with paid and non-paid content. Non-paid content is providedby a content provider to the server computer. The server computer sendsa tracking cooking to the client device and uses the tracking cookie toassociate the user's interaction with the tracking cookie and pay thecontent provider for the user's interaction with the paid-content thatis displayed on the page and associated with the non-paid content. Theuser's interaction may involve clicking on advertising or buying aproduct or a service. Once the user logs in with the server computer,the server computer associates the accumulated user's interaction withthe tracking cookie and pays the logged in user a commission for theuser's interaction with the paid-content. If the user is not yetregistered with the server computer, the server computer may store theaccumulated interaction with the client device and associate the storedaccumulated interaction with the cookie-value stored in the clientdevice. Once the user registers with the server computer, then theserver computer may pay the user based on the stored accumulatedinteraction associated with the cookie-value. Thus, a preferred methodincludes a step of paying the user for revenues generated by saidinteractions.

Another preferred method includes a step of tracking the length of timea user views or stays in a content page. This method logs a timestamp ofthe user visit to each page. Then, the timestamp is used to verifywhether or not the user viewed the page or stayed on the page a lengthof time or longer than a time length set as a threshold. If so, then theinteraction is validated as eligible for payment. If not, theinteraction is invalidated and no payment for that interaction will bemade.

Another preferred method includes a step of checking if a user hasinteracted with a content page before validating the user's interactionas a valid user's interaction. The user must answer a question providingan answer that is to found in the content page.

Another preferred method includes a step of enabling a user to suggestcontent hosted by a remote host. The user's suggested content isassociated with second content hosted by a hosting site that the user isaccessing and interacting with. Once the hosting site or the contentprovider accepts the suggested content from the remote host, thesuggested content and the second content are presented to subsequentusers accessing the hosting site. The user making the suggestion mayreceive a commission if income is generated by user's interaction withthe suggested content, the suggested content may be advertising, goodsor service for sale. Thus, a preferred method optionally includes a stepof enabling the user to suggest paid content that is related to thenon-paid content.

The method may be further employed to enable a suggesting user torecommend that second non-paid content be associated with the non-paidcontent (first non-paid content). In this embodiment, the method ispreferably implemented by asking the host or owner of the first non-paidcontent to accept or reject the recommendation. If the host or owner ofthe first non-paid content accepts, then he is asked to pay a one-timefee to the suggesting user, or no compensation may be given to thesuggesting user. Alternatively, if the second non-paid content is hostedlocally, then after it is accepted, the second non-paid content issimply rendered with the non-paid content.

Another preferred method includes a step of targeting contents for aparticular user based on the particular user's previous physicallocation. This location may be an address where the user previouslylived; it may be a business location the user previously visited; it maybe a location the user previously visited and is logged by devices suchas a smart mobile phone where the GPS (Global Positioning System)records the user's movements; or it may be any other location thatassociates the user to a time prior to when the targeted content ispresented to the user. The content may be a content related toadvertising targeted to businesses entities that are located at or inthe surroundings of where the user has prior association. The contentmay be an item for sale or a service offered that is related to abusiness that is located at the geographic location or in surroundingsof a prior geographic location visited by the user. The content may beany type of content that is related to the user and is based on priorlocation associated with the user.

Another preferred method includes the step of targeting content to auser based on the user's private data that is stored in the user'spersonal devices (laptop computer, desktop computer, mobile devices andothers) or in a cloud (computer on the Internet used to backup user'sdata). The user accesses the server and the server checks the user'sprivate data stored on the server or stored in another computer andtargets content to the user that is related to the user's private data.

Another preferred method is used to compensate a plurality of contentproviders in an environment, such as a social network or micro-bloggingsite. A commission for the plurality of content providers is based onthe paid content that is advertised, or on a good or service sold andincluded (either directly or indirectly with a link) on a page with thenon-paid content provided by the plurality of content providers. Thepaid-content may be displayed on the non-paid content page or the paidcontent may have an association with the non-paid content, or have anassociation with private data of one or more of the plurality of contentproviders contributing to the non-paid content page. The private datamay be user's personal information, personal profiling information, oruser's content stored in the user's personal device. Each user of thepage may also receive a commission for the income generated from page.

Another preferred method includes a step of targeting content to a userbased on one or more of the user's acquaintances (friends on a socialnetwork, or a follower in a micro-blog site, or contents on anaddress-book, etc.). Alternatively, the step may include targetingcontent to a user based on the user-acquaintance's preferences, or basedthe user-acquaintance's prior visited content page, or based theuser-acquaintance's prior good or service purchased, or based theuser-acquaintance's prior add clicked, or based on any correlation ofone user to another user.

Another preferred method include a steps of: deriving a firstclassification group of a particular user's previously viewed pages;deriving a second classification group of the particular user'srequested page; analyzing the second classification group and the firstclassification group to find commonalities; and using the commonalitiesto locate related content for display to the user.

Another preferred method includes a step of the server computerassigning an Internet domain to each registering user with the servercomputer. The server computer uses the user's Internet domain to locatethe registered user's resource stored in the server computer and tosupply to a requesting client the registered user's resource to bedisplayed by a client device. The server computer assigned Internetdomain may be free of charge to the registered user. The server assignedInternet domain may be the actual identification used by the user toregister with the server computer; it may be a domain automaticallyassigned by the server computer to the registered user; or it may be adomain chosen by the registered user and not associated with theregistered user's registration identification stored in the servercomputer. This method may be implemented in a social network, a portal,a shopping mall or at any other type of website where a plurality ofusers register and at least one registered user has a resource stored inthe server computer. The resource may be any kind including: content ofany kind, profiling data, prior user's activities, and any otherresource that belongs to the user or is in the user's procession.

Another preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises: aserver computer; the server computer receiving from a client device auser entered query search; the server computer using the user enteredquery search to search contents from content host belonging to aspecific top-level domain; the server computer fetching at least onecontent and returning the content to the client device.

The server computer uses the user's Internet domain to locate theregistered user's resource stored in the server computer and to supplyto a requesting client the registered user's resource to be displayed bya client device or to be consumed by the client device, if it is acontent page then it will be displayed by the client device, it is asoftware program application, it will be downloaded and consumed(processed) by the client device. If the assigned Internet domain isused in a cloud-computing server environment, the assigned domain may beassociate with each client device accessing the cloud server and oncethe user at a client device choose an icon that designates the cloudserver computer, the client may automatically logs in the user with thecloud-server computer and initiates communication and accessing theuser's resources with the cloud-server computer.

The assigned top-level domain once assigned to more than one device itwill enable a user to access the first device and the first deviceautomatically or by the user request to access the second device andboth device being associated with a single assigned domain or associatedwith two distinct assigned domain, one for each machine. For instance, afirst device is a client mobile device and the second device may beserver device or another second client mobile device. Now a useraccesses the first client mobile device and let's call it‘www.device-1.abc’ and let's call the second device ‘www.device-2.abc’,a user now may accesses the first client device ‘www.device-1.abc’ andthe first device may accesses the resources of the second client device‘www.device-2.abc’ and passes the resources of the second client deviceto the user. So, a user accessed the resources of the second clientdevice ‘www.device-2.abc’ through the first client device‘www.device-1.abc’. So, in this particular arrangement, the seconddevice ‘www.device-2.abc’ becomes a server device to the first clientdevice ‘www.device-1.abc’. As it is well know in the art of computercommunication, the computer supplying content is a server computer andthe computer receiving the content is a client computer. So,‘www.device-2.abc’ is a server to ‘www.device-1.abc’ and‘www.device-1.abc’ is a client to the server device ‘www.device-1.abc’.

The Internet assigned domain may be used by any kind of computingdevice, for instance computing device/s locate at a home and theassigned domain will allow clients to access the device and the device'sresource will be available to the accessing client device based on theInternet assigned domain to the computing device. The computing devicemay be located anywhere and they may be mobile device and once thedevice has registered with the server, the server may automaticallyassign the Internet domain or the user registering the device mayrequest one. The device may communicate with a server computer andrequest a Internet domain with user intervention or without userintervention. As well, it may be that the user simply requests a domainfor the device without registering the device with a server computer.The device associated with the Internet domain may be any kind ofcomputing device, it may be located at a static location, it may bemobile device, may be a home or may be an office device.

By home/office devices are devices like television set, refrigerator,wireless device, desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet device,copier machine, fax machine, telephone device, and it is to beinterpreted broadly to include any kind of mobile device. As well,home/office device may be interpreted as to include any computingdevices and to exclude server computers that are already setup to servecontent to other computers in the Internet/Intranet or in a network andalready having some kind of domain assigned to them. But if a device isattached to the server computer (a server with a domain already assignedto it) the server computer may assign an Internet domain to the attacheddevice or user and the server computer may manage the assigned domainfor the device or user.

Explaining further the meaning of excluding server computers, is to beinterpreted that the embodiment of the present invention doesn't intendto be used to replace a domain already setup for the server computer,for instance if a server computer already has a domain ‘www.server.abc’and a user at the server ‘www.server.abc’ registers there to, theassigned domain (e.g. ‘www.user.abc’) will not replace ‘www.server.abc’,instead the assigned domain ‘www.user.abc’ will be assigned to the userat the server ‘www.server.abc’ and the server ‘www.server.abc’ may storethereto and manage the user assigned domain ‘www.user.abc’ for the user.

If a user registers a computing device with the server computer the usermay choose the name of the domain that the server will assign to thecomputing device and the assigned domain will be used by the clientdevice to assign its resources to a user at the client device or to auser accessing the client device, in the latter case, the client devicebecomes a server to the accessing user. If a client device automaticallyrequests the assignment of a domain, then the domain may be a genericgenerated by the client device.

The method may be implemented where a client computer registers with aserver computer and the server computer assigns a domain for the clientcomputer, but the domain is stored and managed by the server computer.This method will work in the same manner as if a user was registeringwith the server computer, except it is a client computer that is beingregistered with the server computer. It may be that a user does theregistration for the client computer, or it may be that the clientcomputer initiates the registration by itself. In any manner, theassigned domain will be at the server computer and will be used by theserver computer to assign resources associated to the domain then makingthe resource available to the client device that is associated with thedomain in the server computer. Once the client device is initialized orany time after its initialization, the client computer will access theserver's resource associated with the client device. The server computeracts as the storage medium for the client device, or the server computermay actually executes software associated with the client computer andmaking the software-execution's result available to the client deviceand to be consumed by the client device.

The computer device receiving the assigned top-level domain may alreadybe setup with all software necessary to receive the assigned domain andassign its resource to the newly setup domain. Or it may be that thecomputing device having the domain assigned to requires the appropriatesoftware or hardware to be installed to support the domain. As well, itmay be that the server computer assigns the domain to the computingdevice automatically at the time the computing device is registered withthe server computer and the assigned domain may be available immediatelyand the computing device may make its resource available right after.

If the server assigning the domain to a client compute is a serverworking in a cloud-computing environment, then the server may associatethe server resource that is associated with the client device or to auser at the client device. In this arrangement, the client device mayhave an assigned domain that was assigned by the cloud-server and theserver associates one or more of the cloud-server's resource to theclient device's domain, or the server may have another domain that isspecifically setup to enable a client computer with specific domain toaccess its resource associate with the client computer's domain. Forinstance, a domain ‘www.client-cloud.abc’ is assigned to thecloud-computer and the client computer may have a domain‘www.client.abc’, now, ‘www.client.abc’ may access‘www.client-cloud.abc’ and retrieves resource stored at the‘www.client-cloud.abc’. The ‘www.client-cloud.abc’ may be assigned tothe cloud-server computer and associate with ‘www.client.abc’ clientcomputer at the time ‘www.client.abc’ registers with‘www.client-cloud.abc’ or any other time. The cloud-server computersupplies resources therewith to associate client computer and fordisplay at the client, or to be consumed by the client computer. Theresource may or may not be associated with a client computer'scloud-server assigned domain.

The top-level domain may be used to group content hosts that are hostedby a server computer and the content hosts belonging to a specifictop-level domain. For instance, if the server computer hosts more thanone top-level domain, like, “site.abc” and “site.xyz,” the servercomputer may group these sites by their top-level domain as to enablegrouping these content hosts based on the top-level domain “.abc” or“.xyz”. It works similarly to content category where the server maysearch for contents based on the user's selected content category,except, in this particular embodiment, the server computer will searchcontent based on the top-level domain (e.g. “.abc”) and return contentbased on the search result applied to content hosts belonging to thespecific top-level domain.

The same principle may be used to related content to a content pagebased on the top-level domain and based on any method available torelated secondary contents to a content page. For instance, a user'spreviously viewed content that belongs to the same top-level domain,content from the same top-level domain having similar key-words,category or any other kind of similarities between the top-level domaincontent and other content belonging to content hosts in the sametop-level domain classification.

The search may be a user-initiated query search or user-click on a link,or any other way possible as to apply content search to a top-leveldomain. It is intended that a server computer hosting a specifictop-level domain may include more than one server computer and thehosted content host belonging to a specific top-level domain beinghosted in more than one server computer, or client computer or acombination of both. As well, the search may include more than onetop-level domain; it may be done in one or more top-level domains, aslong as the top-level domain participating in the filtering of contentsis identified by the server or client computer. The method may be usedin any conceivable way to filter contents based on top-level domains andnot just in a query search.

Another preferred method involves a second user (user-b) of a websitewho presents additional content on the server, the additional contentbelongs to another user (first user—user-a), and the additional contentis presented in a virtual form. A third user (user-c), who may beassociated with the second user, may elect to receive the second contentautomatically, that is, once the second user presents the secondcontent. The server permits the third user to have such additionalcontent displayed automatically by election stored in the third user'sprofile. The server may allow a third user to elect to accept all suchadditional content, or elect to receive a segment of the additionalcontent related to a specific category, sub-category, classification,etc.

Another preferred method includes a step of offering a coupon to theclicker and/or the content provider, or any involved party responsiblefor generating the income stream related to the clicker's interactionwith the paid content. The coupon may be redeemed at the offeringlocation if the user/clicker has stayed a certain time at a particularwebpage, website, or has answered a question or has filled-in a form atthe targeting site, the targeting site is the advertiser's site or asite selling a product or a service that the clicker has interacted withand the clicker was redirected from the site presenting the advertising,good or service for sale to the target site. The service doesn't have tobe a service for sale it may be a service not offered for sale.

Another preferred method includes a step of receiving at a hostingserver a user request for content. The content requested by the user hasa user-initiated association with a first content hosted by a remotehost. The hosting server retrieves the content requested by the userfrom non-transitory storage at the content host; such retrieval ispreferably based on an authorization identification to access a URL(Universal Resource Location)-location of the remote host. The hostingserver uses the URL-location of the remote host and opens acommunication connection with the remote host. The hosting serverreceives from the remote host the content, preferably after transmittingthe authorization identification to the remote host. The hosting serverthen renders the received content with the user's requested content in acontent page and transmits the content page to be viewed at a clientdevice.

Another preferred method includes a step of targeting content based onthe user's GPS and ground direction: receiving at the computer a GPSlocation, a ground direction and a user set distance from the GPSlocation; the computer using the received GPS location, the grounddirection and the user preset distance from the GPS location to locate acontent that is associated with the received GPS location parameter;deriving a ground location at a distance away from the user's currentlocation of the user's portable device by adding the user-set distanceto the GPS location (longitude and/or the latitude); and, the computerserving the content to the portable device. Alternatively, the methodmay include a step of the computer detecting the user's location and ifthe user is at a business associated with a prior presented discount,deducting the discount from the user's bill.

Another preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises thesteps of enabling the provider of paid content to allow users of contentfor purchase like software application program to opt to receive thecontent for purchase free of charge with the condition that paid contentbe inserted into or integrated with the content for purchase; andportion of the derived income stream be paid to the provider of thecontent for purchase.

Another preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises thesteps of providing free electronic devices subsidized by paid content; abusiness paying upfront for the device and the server saving the paidvalue therein; the server supplying one or more paid content relatedwith the business to the device; the device displaying a paid contentfor a user at the electronic device; the device accumulating the userinteraction with the one or more content; and, after the device isconnected with the server computer, the device transmitting theaccumulated user's interaction with the one or more contents the servercomputer.

Another preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises a servercomputer, the server computer comprising software and hardware to manageusers interaction with content supplied by the server computer toelectronic device: a electronic device registered with the servercomputer; the server computer receiving a first signal from theelectronic device and the server computer while connected with theelectronic device through the first signal, the server computersupplying a paid content to the electronic; the server computerreceiving a second signal from the electronic device and while theserver computer is connected with the electronic device the servercomputer through the second signal, the server computer receiving countof two or more interactions with the content at the client device. Theembodiment further comprising: the electronic device is a subsidizedelectronic device; the subsidized electronic device was prepaid by asponsor; the server computer charging the provider of the paid contentfor the received two or more interactions and using a portion or thefull amount to pay the sponsor of the subsidized electronic device.

Another preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises: acontent-page or a software program having designated location for therendering of paid content and the electronic device controlling thedisplay of the paid content as the electronic device process the contentpage or the software program; and rendering the paid content into thedesignated location of the content page or software program. The methodfurther comprises: the content page designated location is associatedwith a category, keywords, terrestrial location based or user locationbased for the location of the software or content page and only contenthaving associated category, keywords, associated terrestrial location oruser location is inserted on the designated location. The method furthercomprising: the electronic device inserting the paid content at thedesignated location of the content page or the software program as theelectronic device processes the content page or executes the softwareprogram.

Another preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises: aserver computer, the server computer comprises software and hardware formanaging a distributor electronic content rack and the distributorelectronic content rack is used by the server computer to store contentto said distributor electronic content rack or to remove content fromsaid distributor electronic content rack; the server computer receivingcontent from a first user; wherein the receiving of the content mayinvolve the actual content or just a signal representing the content;the server computer making the content available to the distributorelectronic content rack; the server computer storing the content on thedistributor electronic content rack; the server computer receiving acontent request from a second user; the server computer supplying thecontent to the second user; and, wherein the server computer supplyingof the content to the second user may be the actual content or just asignal representing the content.

Another preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises: aserver computer, the server computer comprises software and hardware formanaging a distributor electronic content rack and the distributorelectronic content rack is used by the server computer to store contentto said distributor electronic content rack or to remove content fromsaid distributor electronic content rack; the server computer receivingcontent from a first user; wherein the receiving of the content mayinvolve the actual content or just a signal representing the content;the server computer making the content available to the distributorelectronic content rack; the server computer storing the content on thedistributor electronic content rack if the content is not already storedin the distributor's electronic content rack; the server computerincrementing a counter associated with the content; the server computerreceiving a content request from a second user; the server computersupplying the content to the second user; the server computerdecrementing a counter for the location of the distributor electroniccontent rack where the content is stored; wherein the server computersupplying of the content to the second user may be the actual content orjust a signal representing the content; and, after the server computerdecrementing the counter and if the counter's value becomes zero, theserver computer making the content unavailable for the distributorelectronic content rack as not to allow anyone to make use of thecontent at the distributor electronic content rack without a payment forthe content.

Another preferred embodiment comprising electronic device and theelectronic device comprising software program stored in the electronicdevice's non-transitory storage medium and once the software is executedby the electronic device it will cause the electronic device to manage auser electronic content rack by enabling and disabling a content storedin the electronic device non-transient storage medium and associatedwith the user's electronic rack; if the content is disabled the contentmay still be stored in the electronic device but the electronic devicewill treat the content as if the content didn't exist in the device; theelectronic device will not present the content to the user, and after adisabled content is re-enabled the electronic device will make thecontent available to a user on the device without re-downloading thecontent into the electronic device; and, the content will be part of theuser's electronic content rack.

Another preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises aprogrammable electronic device for storing and managing content; theelectronic device comprises a software program to manage the enablingand disabling of a content stored in the electronic device, if thecontent is disabled the content may still be stored in the electronicdevice but the electronic device will treat the content as if thecontent didn't exist in the device and the electronic device will notpresent the content to the user; after a disabled content is re-enabledthe electronic device will make the content available to a user on thedevice without re-downloading the content into the electronic device. Inthis particular embodiment, the electronic device is used to manage anytype of digital content and may not be associated with a user'selectronic content rack.

A server computer comprising software and hardware for managing anelectronic content rack; the electronic content rack comprising a storedfirst content and a counter associated with the first content; theserver computer receiving a second content; wherein the server computerreceiving the second content may involves a signal with the content'sinformation and if the second content is a copy of the first contentstored in the server computer the second content will not be downloaded;if the second content is not a copy of the first content stored in thesever computer, the sever computer downloading the second content andstoring the second content in the server's computer non-transitorystorage medium.

The embodiment further comprises: receiving at the server computer arequest from a client device to download the content, wherein the servercomputer may exchange signal with the client device and the based on theresult of the signal exchange, if the client computer already has thecontent the server computer not transmitting the content to the clientdevice, if the signal indicates that the content is not yet stored inthe client device, the server computer transmitting the content to theclient device.

Theory of Internet Communication

FIG. 5 illustrates a server (500), the Internet channel (502) and aclient computer (506). The Internet channel (502) is the communicationchannel between the client computer (506) and the server (500). Theclient computer (506) initiates a request for contents from the server(500) and the server (500) returns contents thereafter. The Internet isthe transport vehicle for transporting data between the two computers.Each computer of the illustrated arrangement, the server (500) and theclient computer (506), has a central processing unit, CPU, (512)responsible for its functionalities.

The electronic unit (550) housing the CPU (512) may or may not have allthe components depicted in FIG. 5, or it may have more components thanthose depicted on the electronic unit (550). In any case, eachelectronic unit (550) will have at least some basic electroniccomponents like the CPU (512) and it is the brain of the deviceresponsible for all of the device's functionalities. At power up, theCPU (512) loads instructions from ROM (518) and the instructions willinstruct the CPU (512) to load an Operating System (OS) from the storageunit (526). A typical storage unit is a hard drive, other magnetic disc,Compact Disk Read Only Memory (CD ROM). The OS is loaded into RandomAccess Memory (RAM) (530). As needed, the electronic device communicateswith outside environment through its Input/Output (I/O) port (528) andin the case of the illustrated devices, it is a network card that allowscommunication using the Internet.

The CPU (512) communicates differently with each component in theelectronic unit (550). In some cases, the communication and interactionis two-way and in other instances, one-way. For the electronic unit(550), the CPU (512) does a one-way communication with the ROM (518)(first one-way arrow (516)) and two-way communication with all otherdevices as indicated by two-way arrows (first two-way arrow (514),second two-way arrow (520), third two-way arrow (522) and fourth two-wayarrow (524). Each component will have input means as well, like a mouse,keyboard, and other visual interfacing means like a screen, etc. Theinvention may be implemented in any kind of electronic device, such as acell phone, smart mobile phone, mobile and non-mobile devices, portableand non-portable devices, or any other computing device. The methoddisclosed herein may employ software downloaded and used by anycomputing device including a combination of online and offline computingdevices. It may be a combination of online host and other portabledevices.

Participating parties use the aforementioned arrangement of FIG. 5 toregister with the content distributor server and provide the profilinginformation for the purpose of the user's interaction with it. Theclicker will be logged in with the content distributor server, as toenable the content distributor server to track the clicker's activitiestherewith. The method may be implemented when the clicker is not loggedin with the content distributor or any other server. In thisimplementation, the clicker's activities are tracked by using a cookieat the client device to log the clicker's activities, without requiringthe clicker to be logged in to the server.

FIG. 1 illustrates a preferred method involving a Content Distributor(106) (the host of non-paid contents and paid-contents) provides acontent page (100) having Content A (114) and Advertisings A-D (116),Content A (114) was supplied by Content Distributor (106) from theContent group (102) (the first content) and Advertisings A-D (116) fromthe Advertising group (104). As indicated by the first arrow (118),second arrow (120), third arrow (122), and fourth arrow (124), ContentDistributor (106) has association with the content writer (112), WebSite (108) and clicker (110). As for Content A (114) it has relationshipwith content writer (112) and content page (100) has relationship withWeb Site (108) (or content host like a portable device) as indicated byfifth arrow (126) and sixth arrow (128), respectively.

As indicated by second arrow (120), content writer (112) uploads orprovides contents at the Content Distributor (106). As indicated by thesixth arrow (128), Web Site (108) places Content A (114) therein.Content A (114) is supplied (indicated by first arrow (118)) by theContent Distributor (106). The Content Distributor (106) addsAdvertisings (116) to the Web Site (108), which is also represented bythe content page (100). The content page (100) may be generated by theWeb Site (108) or by the Content Distributor (106). If generated by theContent Distributor (106), the content page (100) is made available toWeb Site (108). The Web Site (108) then makes it available to aconnected client device. The Web Site (108) may be any kind of web hostincluding a portable device or in any kind of device that has memory forstoring content. The combination of Content Distributor (106) and WebSite (108) may be a combination of devices linked to one another or notlinked to one another at all. It may be a combination of online andoffline devices, or a combination of portable and non portable devices.

Once the clicker (110) clicks on Advertisings (116), Content Distributor(106) updates the Clicker database-table (202), the Web Sitedatabase-table (200) and the Content Writer database-table (204). TheClicker database-table (202), Web Site database-table (200) and theContent Writer database-table (204). This is illustrated as a singletable including all of the user's/site's profiling and interaction data;however, as with FIG. 6, each may be split in more than one table. Thearrangements of FIG. 2 are one example used for the purpose ofillustrating the concept using a single table and for the sake ofsimplicity, as well.

FIG. 3 illustrates a further embodiment of FIG. 1 with the addition of agroup of clickers (302) and a group of web sites (300). Contentdistributor (106) makes its contents and advertisings available(indicated by seventh arrow (304)) to a plurality of hostingenvironments and a group of clickers (302) enters clicks (indicated byeighth arrow (306)) on those advertisings. FIG. 3 illustrates that thismethod enhances the advertising and publication processes andincentivizes the parties in ways not currently available, by encouragingcreation of available contents and increasing the income stream for allinvolved parties.

FIG. 4 illustrates a further embodiment of FIG. 1 and FIG. 3. TheInternet is a global grid where contents are virtually and dynamicallyhosted and available to a broad-worldwide user base as never beforepossible and offering a tremendous potential for the content provider,content host, content distributor and clicker. FIG. 4 shows two dynamiccontent providers (physically hosting the contents) and they are:Dynamic Content Provider A (406) hosting two contents: Content A-1 (404)and dynamic Content A-2 (408), and dynamic Content Provider B (418)hosting two contents: dynamic Content B-1 (416) and Content B-2 (420).

Preferably there are many registered users within a content distributorsystem, reader user, clicker user, content providers, hosting sites andothers. The system includes the server the content distributor, and anyother component like a portal, a mall, a social network, a blog host,etc.). The system assigns a domain to each registered user. The domainmay be assigned at the time a user registers with the system or at anyother time the user requests the system to do so. For example, theserver may assign a domain automatically to the user at the time theuser registers with the server. Such assignment may or may not berelated to the user's registration data. The domain may be related tothe user's identification with the system (user's ID) or any otheridentification that the user may choose.

The server will allow the domain to be used by other users to locate thehosting site or the user's profile if the method is implemented in asocial network environment, in a shopping site or in an electronicshopping mall, etc. The user at the user's browser types the UniformResource Locator (URL) for the domain like ‘www.usera.abc’ where the‘usera’ is the user's identification, an identification chosen by theuser, or an identification that the system has assigned to the user. The‘abc’ is the generic top-level domain used to locate the user's resourcestored in the server on the Internet or on an Intranet-network andassociated with ‘uasera’. The server assigned domain may or may not beof free charge to the registered user.

The user's assigned personal domain may be employed to assign anyresource to the user. Such resource may be: a software applicationassociated with the user's identification stored in the server; ane-mail address associated with the user's domain assigned to the userand used by the server to locate the user's e-mail activities stored inthe server and associated with the user's personal domain address; theuser's personal files like downloaded video file, audio file,presentation file, etc.; a software application associated with the userand used to play video file, presentation file, audio file, etc.; or anykind of content the user may have stored in the user's personal domainand that is available to the user online

FIG. 4 illustrates Content Provider A (406), Content Provider B (418),Content Provider C (410) and Clicker (414). There may be a plurality ofsystem assigned domains that are automatically assigned to the user atthe time the user registers with the system. For instance, for ContentProvider A (406), the domain may be “contentprovidera.abc” (.abc is usedfor exemplary purpose but it may be .com or any other generic top-leveldomain), for Content Provider B (418), it may be “contentproviderb.abc”,for Content Provider C (410), it may be “contentproviderc.abc”, and forClicker (414) it may be clicker.abc. The automatically assigned Internetdomain may be assigned at the time of the user's registration with theserver computer without any charge to the user and without charging theuser any maintenance fee for the assigned domain. Alternatively, It maybe assigned with a charge to the user for the domain and/or a charge tothe user for the domain maintenance fee. FIG. 4 illustrates contenthosts and it is to be interpreted broadly to include, users, like in asocial network, business, like in a shopping mall, and devices, likehome devices or office devices. Devices is to be interpreted broadly asto include any kind of electronic device.

In FIG. 4, Content Provider C (410) may be a virtual content host. Inthis case, Virtual Content A-2 (400) and Virtual Content B-1 (412) arehosted virtually on Content Provider C (410). Virtual Content B-1 (412)is a copy of dynamic Content B-1 (416) and the Virtual Content A-2 (400)is a copy of dynamic Content A-2 (408). Content Provider C (410) virtualhosting may be in any form. Examples include: Content Provider C (410)acts as a go-in-between the other two content hosts; and ContentProvider C (410) retrieves and stores a copy of both contents at thecontrol of the Content Provider C (410). The content type may be of anycontent type including goods for sale, advertising, services for sale,services for user without a sale, etc. Advertisings (402) is placed atthe dynamic Content A-2 (408) and the Virtual Content A-2 (400) as well.

FIG. 4 depicts the interaction that happens within the ContentDistributor (106) of FIG. 1. Clicker (414) shows arrows connecting withDynamic Content B-1 (416) and the Virtual Content B-1 (412) and thisindicates that Clicker (414) is interacting (by clicking) on thiscontent. Dynamic Content Provider B (418), Dynamic Content Provider A(406) and virtual content hosting sites are not necessarily integratedwithin the infrastructure of Content Distributor (106) of FIG. 1. Theycan be located anywhere on the Internet/Network and communicating withthe content distributor using web services link.

FIG. 6 is a further embodiment of FIG. 2 showing the three tables ofFIG. 2 split into more than one table. Rows 1-7 of Web sitedatabase-table (200) illustrate the site's profiling data and rows 8-9,illustrate the number of clicks and number of views for the website.Clicker database-table (202), rows 1-7 illustrate the clicker'sprofiling data and rows 8-9, the clicker's activities. Rows 1-8 ofContent Writer database-table (204) illustrate the writer's profilingdata and rows 9-10, the activities with the writer's contents.

Tables illustrated in FIG. 6 relate to several rows in the tables ofFIG. 2, namely: the Web site database-table (200), row 7 (SiteID), row 8(# Clicks) and row 9 (# Views); the Clicker database-table (202), row 7(clicker-ID) and row 8 (# Clicks) and row 9 (# Views); and the Contentwriter database-table (204), row 7 (WriterID), row 8 (ContentID), row 9(# Clicks) and row 10 (# Views).

FIG. 6 shows tables related to the link (600): click-time table (602)contains three rows and four columns. The column “ClickerID” illustratesthe ID for the user doing the clicking (if the user were not logged in,then this column would have no user identification stored in it). TheClickerID provides the means for the Content Distributor (106) to trackthe clicker activities and also a means for preventing the clicker fromclicking over links of paid content for the purpose of fraudulentlyaccumulating commission. In other words, the “ClickerID” is used toprevent fraud. Column “ClickTime” stores the time for the last click ofthe clicker. The column “ClickID” stores a unique ID assigned to eachclick and it will be a way of tracking the links sent to the clicker andthe clicker interaction with them. Typically, the “ClickID” will have alonger value than those of FIG. 6.

The column “ContentID” depicts the ID for each content. A waiting timethreshold may be setup (not shown) so as not to allow a paid content tobe charged for multiple appearances during a time frame, or to beallowed to appear to the same viewer only a specified number of timesduring the session, etc. The “ContentID” is used to identify the sourceof multiple clicks over the same content by the same clicker andinvalidate those clicks in such situations, thus preventing fraud. Thus,a preferred method optionally includes a step of setting a maximumnumber of times that paid content can be displayed to the user.Alternatively, the method may include a step of setting a minimum timeperiod which must elapse before the user may redisplay a previouslydisplayed paid-content on the content page.

Link (600) connects to any of the links to Advertisings (116) of FIG. 1,that is, part of the displayed content page (100) at the Web Site (108).The link (600) provides a means to connect to the website where the useris to be redirected to once the user clicks on a paid content“www.contentdistributor.com.” The link in this example is to ContentDistributor (106) of FIG. 1, “ClickerID=msclicker” and it is row 7 ofClicker database-table (202) of FIG. 2, “WriterID=mrwriter” and it isrow 7 of Content Writer database-table (204), “SiteID=WWWebID” and it isrow 7 of Web Site database-table (200), “ContentID=Cont456” and it isrow 8 of Content Writer database-table (204), and “ClickID=CL456” and itis assigned by the Content Distributor (106) of FIG. 1 to the paidcontent to identify its location once it is clicked upon and it is thevalue of row 2 column “ClickID” of click-time table (602).

If the clicker (user) is not logged in then a cookie is used to trackthe clicker's activities and the clicker will not be compensated untilthe clicker either registers, if not registered, or the clicker logs in,if the clicker is registered and not logged in. The method may include astep of managing a situation where a cookie is used to track theclicker's activities and to record the clicker's activity on the serverby storing a value in the cookie-file at the client device. Loggedactivities on the server may be saved for an indefinite time that may berelated to a plurality of clicker's sessions with the server.

When the clicker (user) registers or connects with the server at anyuser's session with the server, the server may then notify the clickerof the clicker's accumulated points, may notify the clicker of anyaccumulated commission, and may pay the clicker accordingly. The servermay notify the user (clicker) of accumulated points or commission at anytime the server is delivering paid and non-paid content to the user evenif the user is not registered with the server. The server may notify theuser of the need to register by sending a link or a displayable noticeto the user and by interacting with the link or displayable notice, theuser may register and claim the accumulated points or commission.

The involved parties are preferably registered with the contentdistributor's server and the clicker may have to be logged in so as torecord the clicking activities and to subsequently enable compensationof all involved parties. As indicated, the method may be implemented bya user doing the clicking who is not registered. If the clicker is notregistered then all the other parties will be compensated except theclicker. When a clicker is clicking and viewing paid content the contentdistributor's server will track the clicker activities for two purposes:to prevent fraud and to pay all of the involved parties. The contentdistributor's server will have a waiting time-threshold set therein toprevent a clicker from clicking on the paid contents just for thepurpose of accumulating commission and for the sake of an example, thewaiting time-threshold may be set to a few seconds or to two minutes.

In click-time table (602), the first column is for the “ClickerID.” Oncea clicker clicks on paid content, the content distributor's server willlog the clicker ID (first column, which is the same as row 7, Clickerdatabase-table (202)). If the clicker is not a registered clicker, thenrow 7 will be empty and the server may use a cookie at the clickercomputer to track the clicker. If a cookie is used, then the cookiekey-value may be entered in the row 7. The second column has“ClickTime,” which is the time the user clicked on the paid content. Thefirst row shows the time of “12:05 AM” and for the second row the time“12:06 AM.” The waiting time-threshold is two minutes. In subtractingthe two values (row 1 and row 2), the time spent is only one minute andso only the first click is recorded and the second click is disregarded.

Referring to FIG. 6, once a clicker “msclicker” clicks on a paidcontent's link, the content server will receive the information aboutthe click from the link (600) and as it retrieves and parses it, theclick ID “ClickID” will be used to locate the stored information for theclicker in click-time table (602). Once the table row is retrieved thecontent distributor's server will verify the waiting time-threshold bycomparing the previous click (row 2 is compared with row 1) and if thetwo clicks do not occur after the waiting time-threshold of two minutes,then the second click is discarded.

If the second click is not charged to the advertiser, then neither theclicker nor anyone else gets paid for the second click, thus preventingfraud. The waiting time-threshold can be any value and not necessary twominutes, as noted in this example. For instance, the waitingtime-threshold could be just a few seconds, for instance. Further alongthe interaction the clicker clicks on another paid content and this timethe third row is compared with the second row and as indicated, threeminutes will have elapsed and the waiting time-threshold met, thus thesecond click is recorded on subsequent tables, that is, it is paid toall participating parties.

In click-count table (604) column “ClickCount,” the value of “1” isstored for the first click of click-time table (602) for the clicker“msclicker” column “ClickerID.” If the second click is charged, then theClickCount column (604) will have the value of ‘2.’ Clicker-ID table(606) stores the clicker's activities and it has for the first column“ClickerID” and it is the ID for the clicker, the second column it has“SiteID” and it is the ID for the site where the clicker is accessingand has clicked on the paid content, the third column has “WriterID” andit is the ID for the content provider/writer, the third column has“ContentID” and it is the ID for the second click (row 2 of click-timetable (602) and retrieved from link (600)) and the last column (fifthcolumn) illustrated how long the clicker stayed on the page, this isimportant for deducing user's interest on the clicked paid-content andfor marketing purposes.

Thus, a preferred method of web site development based on advertisingrevenue sharing will include steps of: registering a provider to preparefree content subject to a condition that the provider may receive nocompensation for the non-paid content; receiving paid content; combiningthe free content with the paid content on a content page; sending thecontent page for display on a computer; enabling a user to access thecomputer and display the content page; calculating a gross total oftimes the user displays the content page; determining a net total bysubtracting from the gross total the number of subsequent times the useraccesses the content page before expiration of a waiting-time thresholdfrom an immediately preceding access; receiving payment from theadvertiser for the net total; and paying the provider for the net total.

Alternatively, for hosts not involving web sites, a preferred method ofhost development based on advertising revenue sharing will include stepsof: registering a provider to prepare non-paid content subject to acondition that the provider may receive no compensation for the non-paidcontent; transmitting the non-paid content to a content distributor;receiving at a host: the non-paid content sent by the contentdistributer; and paid content from an advertiser, the paid contentcomprising a link to additional information; combining the non-paidcontent and the paid content into a page; displaying the page on thehost; totaling a number of interactions by a user with the link;receiving payment from the advertiser for the number of interactionswith the link; and paying the provider for the number of interactionswith the link. Optional additional steps include of paying the contentdistributor for the number of interactions with the link; andincorporating the non-paid content into the page as virtual content.

An alternate preferred method of web site development based onadvertising revenue sharing will include steps of: providing a servercomputer; combining content with an advertisement; sending the contentand advertisement to a user accessing the server computer; receiving atthe server computer a first click on the advertisement, the first clicksent by a user; saving a first indication of receiving the first click;receiving a second click on the advertisement, the second click sent bya user; setting a time period; determining if the second click isreceived after expiration of the time period; saving a second indicationof the second click if the second click occurs after expiration of thetime period; and charging an advertiser for each saved indication.

Writer-ID table (608) illustrates “WriterID” for the first column and itis the ID for the writer (content provider), the second column“ContentID” has the ID for the content and the third column has“NumberClicks” it has the total number of clicks that the content hasreceived from all clickers and as for this illustration it is “10”, and,it means that content “Cont456” written by “mrwriter” has received “10”clicks from all users (clickers). Lastly, content-host table (610)illustrates for the first column “SiteID” and it is the ID for the website hosting the content, the second column “ContentID” is the ID forthe content that was hosted by the site and receive the click on thepaid content and the third column is “NumberClicks” has the number ofclicks that the content “Cont456” has received from all clickers whilehosted at the site “WWWebID” and it has received “10” clicks so far.Other tables can be present as well, and anyone with the skill in theart will readily appreciate in relation to the disclosure given hereinand implement them as necessary.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart for the tables of FIG. 6 at the contentdistributor's server. At the very beginning, the “Start” (700), thelogic flow and the means for detecting the user clicks (702), after aclick is detected as it was illustrated on the link (600) of FIG. 6, thetime is set for the user and the content, as it was illustrated onclick-time table (602) of FIG. 6 and indicated by the database symbolnext to the set-time box (704). Once a click is received, the contentdistributor's server checks to see if the click is within the waitingtime-threshold as aforementioned, if it isn't (yes/no diamond (706)),then the flow will move on without doing anything, if it is (yes/nodiamond (706)), then the click will be incremented, increment-clicks box(708), and it is the click-count table (604) of FIG. 6, the click willbe saved for the clicker, save-clicker history box (710), and it isclicker-ID table (606) of FIG. 6, the click will be saved for the writer(712) and it is writer-ID table (608) of FIG. 6, the click will be savedfor the content-hosting site (714) and it is content-host table (610) ofFIG. 6 and finally, the process will exit, end-oval (716).

Regarding the commission that will be paid to each participating partyof the program, it may be set as a percentage or a fraction of eachclick and since each advertising will typically be priced differently, atypical percentage might be 10% for the writer, 10% for the contenthosting site and 10% for the clicker. Of course, this is just anillustration and the percentage may be set in any conceivable way. Theidea is that all of the participating parties will be compensated fortheir participation in the process of generating income for the contentdistributor.

The commission can be based on as per click mechanism where a clickerwill receive a specific amount for the click. The commission can bebased on redeemable points, where each click represents a number ofpoints that can be redeemed for other amenities, cash value, goods, etc.As for the website hosting the contents from the content distributorsand for the content writer supplying the content to the contentdistributor, they both will be tracked the content distributor as itplaces contents on the web site. The paid and non-paid content don'tnecessary need to be on a single page, they can be in separate pages,popup window, frames, etc. The content distributor can hostuser-supplied content as well along with paid contents.

The commission may as well be setup in such a way that the commissionand or redeemable points be assigned by the commission's recipient(clicker, content provider, content host, etc.) to another entity like anon-profit organization and once a click happens in advertising or apurchase of goods or services are made the commission goes directly tothe non-profit of the recipient's choice. The commission may be done ina way that the recipient's commission is split with two or moreorganizations chosen by the recipient. The organizations can befor-profit and non-profit organizations without departing from the truespirit of the invention. The organizations receiving commission from thecommission's recipient may as well be registered organizations with thesystem and having an account setup with the system as to facilitate thecommission assignment.

The form for compensating the involved parties may be based on amechanism revolving around pay-per-view (for the appearance of a paidcontent on a webpage). All parties would then receive a commission basedon the number of times the non-paid content appeared on each webpagealong with the paid content. The mechanism may be setup to use thewaiting-time threshold, as previously discussed. The system may be setupto just login the number of times the involved parties interact with thepaid content and be compensated the same way as it has been explainedfor the clicking mechanism. Since anyone with the skill of the art willreadily know how to implement the pay-per-view mechanism based on theexplanation already given for the pay-per-click mechanism, thepay-per-view mechanism will not be explained any further for the factthat the explanation will be redundant. It is done as is for sake ofsimplicity and not in any way intended to obscure this invention.Furthermore, as it is well known to those of the skill in the art, paidand non-paid content can be any kind of content in any format, e.g.audio, video, print, slide presentation, maps, images, goods for sale,etc., as well, the compensation can be based on just when theinteraction happens with paid contents, instead of the relationship ofpaid and non-paid content as it has been described throughout thisdisclosure.

Encrypted IP Address to Prevent Click Fraud

Click fraud may also be prevented using methods other than the methoddescribed herein while teaching uses of time-threshold. One such methodinvolves an advertising accessed by an advertising link clicked on by auser at a client device. The advertising link includes the client IP(Internet Protocol) Address where a first user is clicking onadvertisings and viewing contents. The IP address is encrypted and onlythe server can decrypt the IP Address once a click is performed on theadvertising link. If the first user gives the advertising link to asecond user, so as to enable the second user to click on the link forthe purpose of generating income to the first user, the server willreceive the encrypted IP address, decrypt it and match with thecurrent-user's IP address where the click originated. If that IP addressis the same as the IP address of the client computer, then the click isvalid and will be charged to the advertiser. If that IP address is notthe same as the IP address of the client computer, then the click may beconsidered fraud since the link was moved from the intended first userto the second user at a different location. Thus, the click from thesecond user will be invalidated. So the server will receive the IPaddress from the client device where the user is accessing the server,this happens the first time the user accesses the server computer. Oncethe server sends the advertising to the client device, the server willhave encrypted the IP address and embedded it in the advertising linkthat the user will click. After the user clicks on the link, the clientdevice would then send the encrypted IP address to the server for theserver's verification and validation.

A preferred method may prevent fraud by implementing steps of:concatenating an original URL with an ID of a first user to form aconcatenated URL; receiving a click from requesting display theconcatenated URL at the server; decrypting the concatenated URL tocreate an identified URL and the first user's ID; verifying if theidentified URL matches the original URL; validating the click if theymatch; if they don't match, then either the server warning the firstuser about an attempt to commit fraud, or the server suspending thefirst user from further interaction with the server.

FIG. 8 illustrates a logic flow of such a method. The process startswith oval (800) once a user accesses the server. In a FIG. 8 first step(802), the server receives an IP address from the client device wherethe user is accessing the server from. In a FIG. 8 second step (804),the server then encrypts the IP address and sends it back to the clientdevice in a link, designated by the link. In a FIG. 8 third step (806),the user then clicks on a link that includes the encrypted IP address.In a FIG. 8 fourth step (808), the encrypted IP address is received bythe server and the server decrypts the encrypted IP address. In a FIG. 8fifth step (810), the server compares the two IP addresses: the onereceived in the first step (802); and the one decrypted in the fourthstep (808). If the two IP addresses are the same, then in a FIG. 8 sixthstep (812), the click is validated; otherwise it is not and the processends at FIG. 8 ellipse (814).

A preferred method comprises a hosting-computing device receiving afirst request from a client-computing device the request comprising a IPaddress, the hosting-computing device encrypting the received IP addressand including the encrypted IP address in link or form elements that aresubsequent sent to the client-computing device in subsequent servedcontent pages to the client-computing device from the hosting-computingdevice. The hosting-computing device receiving a second request from theclient-computing device and the second request comprising the encryptedIP address and the client-computing device's IP address. The secondrequest is an interaction to be counted as a paid-interaction. Thehosting-computing device decrypting the received encrypted IP addressand comparing the decrypted IP address with the receivedclient-computing device's IP address. If the decrypted IP addressmatches the received client-computing device's IP address then countingthe interaction as a valid paid-interaction. If the decrypted IP addressdoes not match the received client-computing device's IP address, thenthe interaction is voided.

Using a Cookie to Track an Un-Logged User

A preferred method uses more than one process to track a user. While aregistered and logged in user is one method of tracking a user, anothermethod is to track a user even when the user is not registered, or aregistered user is not logged in. In this circumstance, the objective isthen limited to paying the content provider and/or the content host.

In tracking a user that is not logged in, a value is placed in a cookieat the client device. The cookie value is also stored at the server foreach advertising sent to the client device, so the client device and theserver have the same cookie value. Once the user logs in the server, theserver then adds the user's clicked advertising to the user accountbased on the cookie value at the server and client device. If the userdoes not log in or the user is not registered, then the user's clickswill be accounted for and the content provider and/or the content hostreceive the share of the advertising revenue generated by the user'sclicks or goods and services sold. The server may save the clicks forthe user at the client device by associating the cookie value to theaccumulated clicks and the saving may be for more one or more user'ssession with the server and once the user registers with the server thenthe server may pay the user for the accumulated interactions.

FIG. 9 is a logic diagram illustrating the just described method. Theprocess starts at FIG. 9 oval (900). In FIG. 9 first step (902), a useraccesses the server. The server sends a cookie value to the clientdevice. In FIG. 9 second step (904), the user clicks on an advertisinglink. In FIG. 9 third step (906), the server associates the click to thecookie value and logs the click and pays the content provider and/or thehosting site. In FIG. 9 fourth step (908), the server performs a processcheck to see if the user is logged in. If the user is logged in, FIG. 9fifth step (910) is performed and the click is logged for the logged inuser and the process enables another user click at FIG. 9 second step(904). If the user is not logged in, the FIG. 9 fifth step (910) is notperformed and the process reverts to FIG. 9 second step (904) and awaitsanother user click.

A preferred method comprises the presentation of paid and non-paidcontent displayed together in a content page. The non-paid content isprovided by a content provider and the paid-content provided by anadvertiser or by entities offering goods or services for sale. Theserver tracks a user's interaction with the content page by sending acookie to the client device. The server computer uses the trackingcookie code to calculate interactions with the paid content and to paythe content provider and/or hosting site for interactions with the paidcontent displayed with the provider's non-paid content. The server usesthe cookie tracking code to accumulate interactions with paid-contentthat originates from the client device at the current session or atprior sessions. Once a user logs in with the server, the server usingthe cookie tracking code, pays the logged in user for all accumulateduser's interaction with paid content.

Tracking a User's Length of Stay on an Advertiser's Page

Other processes are available for tracking the time length a clickerstays at the advertising destination site. If the clicker stays acertain amount of time (time threshold), the click is validated, if not,the click is invalidated. There are many ways of tracking how long theuser stays in a content page. For example, such tracking may be done byincorporating a JavaScript program in the content page that notifies theserver when the user leaves the page after clicking on an advertising.Another example uses a bar with code to do such tracking and this may beimplemented through the user's web browser or on the client device. Ifimplemented on a bar of the web browser, then the bar will check whenthe user leaves one URL (Universal Resource Locator) and moves toanother, such as to navigate to another web site. Then the bar notifiesthe server when the user has been redirected to another site. The serverthen calculates the time spent on the prior visit by checking the priorvisit time stamp (first time stamp) with the time stamp of the momentthe user is redirected to the other site or page (second time stamp).The comparison of the two time stamps generates a time period bysubtracting the second time stamp by the first time stamp and the resultof the subtraction derives the length of time spent by the user at theprior content page (time threshold). If the time period meets a presettime threshold, than the click is validated.

Validation can occur once the user stays a certain time at theadvertiser's page, or once the user answer a question on the advertiserpage. Such validation might then enable charging the advertiser for theclick a higher rate, since the advertiser can be assured that the userread and/or reviewed the advertiser's content. In the case of answeringa question at the advertiser's web page, the process may be setup wherethe user's ID, associated with the user answering the question, may becollected by the advertiser's server and then matched with the user's IDstored in the content hosting site's server for authenticity (serverassociated with the charging of the advertiser).

The hosting server may track the user by logging the user's IDassociated with a webpage's ID or the actual URL of the webpage. Oncethe advertiser makes a submission of the user's ID and either the URL ofthe advertiser's webpage or an ID of the advertiser's webpage, then thehosting server matches the submission with the user's ID and thewebpage's ID or the user's ID and the webpage's URL stored in thehosting server. If there is a match, then the advertiser is charged.

In an alternative process, a user's ID is saved in both the advertiser'sserver and the hosting site's server. The hosting server may also logthe user's ID and the URL or ID of the page that received the click.Then the hosting server may associate the user's ID with a time's stampindicating the time the user clicked on the advertising. The content maybe displayed in any conceivable manner whatsoever and not necessarily awebpage, it may be any kind of content page.

In an alternative process, a user's ID is used by both the advertiserserver and the hosting site to match the user visit to the advertiser'swebsite. For instance, if both servers contain the user's ID for theadvertiser's webpage, then the click is validated and charge from theadvertiser. So, after a user clicks on the advertising, the hostingserver will log the user's ID and the advertiser server (or may be asite selling goods or services) logs the user's ID as well and then bothservers match the user's ID to validate the user's click. Alternatively,a combination may be used, for example user's ID and time stamp, or theuser's ID and the content page's ID, or the user's ID and thecontent-page URL.

FIG. 10 illustrates a preferred process and FIG. 10 oval (1000) startsthe process. In FIG. 10 first step (1002), the server receives a userfirst access from a client device and the server sets a first time stampfor the user visit. In FIG. 10 second step (1004), the server receives auser second access from a client and the server set a second time stampfor the user visit. In FIG. 10 third step (1006), the server checks tosee if the time period associated with the client access meets the timethreshold. If so, then in FIG. 10 fourth step (1008), the advertiser ischarged and the process ends at FIG. 10 end-oval (1010). If not, thenthe advertiser is not charged and process ends at FIG. 10 end-oval(1010).

A preferred method comprises tracking the time a user stays at aspecific page. The client device sends a code and a URL string of thepage the user is navigating to at the server computer. The code is usedby to track the length a user stays at specific content pages. Theserver saves a timestamp of the user's arrival at a content page andassociates the timestamp with the user's ID at the server, or associatesa cookie tracking mechanism like a code stored in the client computer.If the user's stay at a specific content page is equal to or longer thana preset time threshold, then the advertiser is charged. If the user'sstay at the specific content page is less than a preset time threshold,then no charge is assessed.

Tracking a User by Requiring an Answer from the User at a Target Webpage

A preferred method tracks a user for the purpose of compensating the allinvolved parties for the user's interaction with the content page.Tracking may be implemented on a browser on the client device, or on theserver to check if the clicker scrolls the page at the destination siteafter clicking on advertising. If the clicker scrolls the page, then theclick costs assessed to the advertiser may higher than if the clickerdoes not scroll the page. Alternatively, if the user scrolls to acertain place on the destination webpage where a hint is present and ifthe user/clicker interacts with the hint, then the hint may present aquestion that can be answered with information found on the destinationpage (the page of the clicked advertising, the advertiser's contentpage). If the user answers the question correctly, then the user mayreceive: redeemable points; receive a higher percentage for the click;or receive a combination of commission and redeemable points. The highercommission may apply all involved parties, the clicker, the contentprovider, the content host, the content distributor or any other partythat happens to participate.

This embodiment may be incorporated with other embodiment as to enhanceclick fraud prevention and to enhance trust on the part of theadvertiser, seller, user, etc. The content destination-advertising pagemay have an answer to a hint on it, for instance, “We've been inbusiness since 1850 and our goals are to serve our neighborhood.” Inthis instance there may be a question in a form element that may say“When we started our business operation?” and the answer will be ‘1850’or, what is our goal?” and the answer will be ‘serve our neighborhood’the answer type may be in the form of a text field, dropdown, radio box,check box, or any other type in any conceivable way.

Alternatively, the content destination-advertising page may have a linkwith the answer and once the user clicks on the link the user isredirected to a page that relates to the answer, like, a page that isrelated to the year ‘1850’ if the answer to the question was ‘1850’ asin the given example.

The content destination-advertising page may enable the user to click ona link in order to validate the answer. The question may be placed atthe end of the page or just after the hint or anywhere in the page insuch way that the user will have to read the content of the page to beable to answer the question properly. The hint may be at the contentpage that includes the advertising and the hint's answer may be in theadvertiser's content page, or, the hint and the hint's answer might thein advertiser's content page.

FIG. 11 illustrates this embodiment. A content page (1100) comprises abusiness description (1102), a question (1104) for the user to answer,and a text area (1106) where the user can provide the appropriateanswer. The format of providing the appropriate answer may be any formatand not necessarily a text field. It may be a checkbox, a radio box, apull-down, or other means for the user's selection. The method may beimplemented on a client device or on a combination of client device andserver device, online and offline, or just offline.

A preferred method comprises a webpage presentation where the webpagecontent contains a question and an answer. The content page includes ameans like a form element for the user to provide an answer to thequestion so as to confirm that the user has reviewed the content on thecontent page. The client device submits the user provided answer to thecomputer and the computer compares the user's answer with the contentpage's correct answer stored in the computer. If the user's answer tothe question matches the correct answer, then the content host ischarged for the valid answer and any involved party may be paid. Aninvolved party may have provided other contents or services associatedwith the income stream generated by the user's correct answer. Thecontent page that requires a user's answer for validation may be anadvertising page, or a page having a good or service for sale. The usermay reach the page by clicking on a link from another page, like a pageof non-paid content provided by a content provider, or any other type ofcontent page. The method may be implemented on a client device or on acombination of client device and server device, online and offline, orjust offline.

User Suggested Secondary Content for a Content Page

Preferred methods compensate all involved parties in the process ofgenerating an income stream including users who may suggest advertising,good for sale or service for sale to another user's content page. Forinstance, the content distributor or any other party of the system willhave a plurality of goods for sale, advertising, services, user providedcontents, etc.

A user reading a content page, a blog for instance, may be betterprepared to know what kind of good for sale, advertising, services, orother contents, etc. best relate to the content being read, since thatuser may already know a good for sale that the user may have alreadypurchased in the past and is related to the content on the content page,that is, in the same area of interest or the same classification,category, etc. Such a user would already knows that other users readingthe same content page would be interested in purchasing similar goods orhaving other related contents like advertising and services, or othercontents related to the content page.

Thus, in preferred methods, the user is empowered to suggest a contentto be related to the content page. When such suggestion is implementedand another user clicks on a link of the suggested content, thesuggesting user receives a commission of the income generated because ofthe user suggestion. The commission may be a percentage or fraction of:the income generated by a click on an advertisement; or the purchase ofsuggested goods and services, etc. The concept is to compensate thesuggesting user for the suggestion.

An example of a situation involving a suggesting user involves a firstuser reading a blog about a trip to San Francisco, Calif. The first userknows of good restaurants, hotels, bars, etc., in San Francisco tosuggest. Because such a suggestion is highly relevant, a second userreading the blog page may be more inclined to click on an advertisementbased on that suggestion, for example, to make hotel reservation,purchase theatre tickets, etc. The second user doing the reading has ahigh motivation to click because the second user does not have to gothrough the process of independently finding out information related toSan Francisco, Calif. because the first user already had the experienceas a former visitor of San Francisco or even a resident of SanFrancisco.

FIG. 12 and FIG. 13 illustrate the above example. There is a FIG. 12content page (1200) that a first user is visiting and the first usersuggests advertising ‘Hotel ABC’ (1202), ‘Restaurant XYZ’ (1204); goodsfor sale ‘Theatre Tickets’ (1206) and a service ‘Hotel Reservation’(1208).

There is a FIG. 13 content page (1300) shown after a second useraccesses the content page at a later time. The FIG. 13 content page(1300) comprises FIG. 12 content page (1200 and FIG. 13 advertising(1302), which is same as ‘Hotel ABC’ (1202); FIG. 13 Advertising (1304),which is ‘Restaurant XYZ’ (1204); FIG. 13 Good for sale (1306), which is‘Theatre Tickets’ (1206); and FIG. 13 service (1308), which is ‘HotelReservation’ (1208).

Once a suggesting user suggests content to be related to a content page,the content page owner, the content provider, may have to approve thecontent to be related to the page, but this is not a requirement.

Also, the suggested content may be related to suggesting user'sprofiling information like, user's residence, user's hobby, user's sex,user's income and many other user related data not listed herein. Thesuggesting user may create a list of keywords to be part of the user'sprofiling data, and the suggesting user's suggested keywords may be usedto further enhance the relationship of the content presentation.

User profiling information may be used in such way that the accessinguser's profiling information may be used to designate the position therelated content appears in the page. If the related content hasinformation like keywords that are found in the accessing user'sprofiling data then the content will be listed higher on the contentpage, like the top position or the best displaying location of thecontent page. The right or the left side of the content page, the top orthe bottom of the content and any other conceivable way of place contenton a content page.

The method may be further implemented where a bidding process takes intoaccount the user's profiling data, wherein the user profiling datadesignates the best displaying location of the web page for the contentto be displayed. Bidding may or may not be included in preferredembodiments, for instance, it may or may not be associated with a userrelated content, it may be used for any kind of bidding where the user'sprofiling data will be used to related content to the user based on theuser's profiling data, or be used to relate content to the user based onthe user's profiling data and the content of the content page.

The method may include a bidding system where the bidder bids for betterpositioning of the bidder's advertising, good or service to beassociated with a better viewing location of the content page, thebidding method relates objects of the advertising, good or service ofthe bidder with objects of the viewing user's profiling data.

The method may include a step of the server relating contents based onthe suggesting user's profiling data. This may be followed by a step ofthe server using the suggesting user's profiling data along with theuser's suggested contents to find matches of other additional contentsto be related to the content page. The page would then have contentsthat are associated with the user's profiling data plus the user'ssuggested content.

For instance, if the user suggests a content that states ‘Hotel ABC’ andthe user's profiling data includes the words ‘Oakland’ then anadditional content may be suggested for approval that will be anadvertising for ‘Hotel ABC in Oakland, Calif.,’ which is close to SanFrancisco, Calif. and may be more affordable. The server may also employthe user's profiling data to identify additional content related to thecontent page's content so as to enhance the relevance of content page.Thus, the method may include a step of presenting to the suggesting useradditional contents for the suggesting user's approval or the method mayautomatically presents additional contents to the hosting site for theapproval of the content host.

Preferred methods enable a user's suggestion of secondary contents to beassociated with other content or to be included remotely into otherhosting environments as virtual contents, such as where the suggestedcontent resides at a remote location. In such an embodiment, the methodmay be implemented where a webpage displayed on the client web browserwhere the suggesting user may activate and a secondary page displaysecondary contents from other hosting locations, the other hostinglocations may be at the same server where the content page that the userwill use to associate content to is hosted, may be at a different URL,different domain host, different server, on a client device, or none ofthese. The suggesting user then selects an item (content, good, service,etc.) and places the item into the receiving content page. The means forthe user to select the item may be: form elements; drag-and-drop; or acopy and paste operation involving selecting a link (copying the link)at a web site and pasting the link into the content page receiving thesuggestion. If a copy-and-paste operation is used and the remote-hostinglocation associated with the link is not yet associated with the hostingserver, then the hosting server may contact the remote-hosting locationto inform it that user wants to use the remote-hosting location'scontent to associate with content of the hosting location. The hostinglocation may request or suggest that the remote-hosting locationregister with the hosting server. Preferred methods may associate remotecontents from remote hosts into a single host or into one or more hosts.

The suggested content may include other paid content on the content pagethat is displayed to a user. If it does, then income related tointeractions with the paid content is preferably paid to the owner ofthe suggested content page. The suggested content page may have a framewhere the accompanying paid content resides. Once the client deviceprocesses the content page displayed on the browser, the client deviceinitiates a content request for the content-owner's related paidcontent.

FIG. 14 illustrates a FIG. 12 content page (1200) in which a user maysuggest content to be related thereto. FIG. 14 is very similar to FIG.12, except that the content to be suggested resides at a remote location(different URL, server, network domain, at the same server with adifferent URL of the FIG. 12 content page (1200), etc.). There are tworemote locations: FIG. 14 first remote location (1402) and FIG. 14second remote location (1412). Both locations reside at different domainaddresses, but it can be different URLs, servers, etc. FIG. 14 firstremote location (1402) comprises FIG. 14 first domain (1410) and ithosts a FIG. 14 good for sale (1406) and FIG. 14 first advertising(1408). FIG. 14 second remote location (1412) comprises FIG. 14 domain(1418) and FIG. 14 second service (1414) and FIG. 14 second advertising(1416).

The method may include a step of enabling the suggesting user to selectcontent by the use of form elements, drag-and-drop, cut and paste of aURL link, or any other method that will enable a user to select an item.Remote locations may register or simply list their domain address withthe system and the system will fetch the contents and present them tothe suggesting user. The method may be implement where the suggestinguser simply performs a search with terms like keywords, categories,descriptions and the server's search mechanism will locate remotelocations based on the provided search term and display to the user theitems for the user selections. The method may be implemented where thesearch term is used by peer-to-peer and the associated remote locationswill be presented to the suggesting user through a peer-to-peertransportation means.

FIG. 15 illustrates a transportation mechanism used by a preferredmethod. It comprises FIG. 12 content page (1200) displayed to the userand a FIG. 15 database (1510) with a FIG. 15 database table (1511). FIG.12 content page (1200) and FIG. 15 database (1510) resides at thehosting location of FIG. 12 content page (1200). Once the systempresents contents from FIG. 14 first remote location (1402) and FIG. 14second remote location (1412), the system will initiate communicationwith both remote locations and it may be implemented as depicted hereinor it may be implemented using other means if implemented locally butfetching contents from different URL locations on a single domainaddress. For example, the transportation mechanism may be byweb-services or a peer-to-peer connection.

Once contents from remote locations FIG. 14 first remote location (1402)and FIG. 14 second remote location (1412) are presented to the user forthe user's selection, the server will initiate communication(represented by FIG. 15 first arrow (1501) and FIG. 15 second arrow(1504) through FIG. 15 SOCKET CONNECTION A (1502). At FIG. 14 firstremote location (1402), FIG. 15 SOCKET CONNECTION A (1502) initiates aconnection with FIG. 15 SOCKET CONNECTION B (1506) and it is used totransport FIG. 14 good for sale (1406) and FIG. 14 first advertising(1408). While transporting FIG. 14 good for sale (1406), FIG. 15 SOCKETCONNECTION A (1502) initiates a connection with remote SOCKET CONNECTIONB (1506) and retrieves (represented by FIG. 15 third arrow (1512)) theFIG. 14 good for sale (1406) and the advertising (1408). The same istrue regarding the access to FIG. 14 second remote location (1412) whereFIG. 15 SOCKET CONNECTION A (1502) initiates a connection with FIG. 15SOCKET CONNECTION C (1508) and it is used to transport (1514) FIG. 14second service (1414) and FIG. 14 second advertising (1416) to be viewedby the suggesting user or to be included into a content page to beconsumed by a client device.

FIG. 15 shows one FIG. 15 hosting-location server (1500) and two remotelocations: FIG. 15 first remote-location server (1515) and FIG. 15second remote-location server (1515-a)). Each remote location containscontents. Each content at each remote location server has a content IDthat identifies the content at the remote location server. The contentID is stored at the FIG. 15 hosting-location server (1500) in the FIG.15 database table (1511) of FIG. 15 identification column (1511-b)within the FIG. 15 database (1510).

The content ID may also be stored at the hosting-remote location. Theidentifications are preferably stored at each location's server: FIG. 15first remote-location server (1515); and FIG. 15 second remote-locationserver (1515-a). The identifications are associated with each contentstored therein.

FIG. 14 remote location (1402) stores FIG. 14 good for sale (1406). FIG.14 shows first domain (1410). In FIG. 15, in the first domain (1410)stores the first content ID ‘AB’ (1520) and it is stored in the FIG. 15database table (1511) as the first identification (row #1, FIG. 15number column (1511-c)); and for FIG. 14 first advertising (1408) issecond content ID ‘12’ (1522) also shown in FIG. 15 identificationcolumn (1511-b)) and it is stored in the FIG. 15 database table (1511)as the second identification (row #2, FIG. 15 number column (1511-c)),the same explanation applies to both contents of FIG. 14 second remotelocation (1412) where FIG. 14 service (1414) has an identification ‘XY’(1524) and it is stored in the FIG. 15 database table (1511) as thethird identification (row #3, FIG. 15 number column (1511-c)), and FIG.14 advertising (1416) has an identification ‘89’ (1526) and it is storedin database table (1511) as the fourth identification (row #4, FIG. 15number column (1511-c)). A transportation mechanism involving two remotehosts has been illustrated, but it may be a single remote host or anynumber of remote hosts without departing from the true spirit of theteachings of the invention.

Each URL-location is associated with an identification stored in thedatabase FIG. 15 database table (1511), which the hosting server uses tocommunicate with remote hosts: FIG. 14 first remote location (1402) andFIG. 14 second remote location (1412). Once a user accesses the FIG. 15hosting-location server (1500) and the user's request comprises a remotecontent associated with the content page or for the selection by thesuggesting user, the FIG. 15 hosting-location server (1500) retrievesthe first content ID ‘AB’ (1520) and the second content ID ‘12’ (1522)(rows #1 and #2 of FIG. 15 number column (1511-c)) stored in the FIG. 15database table (1511), FIG. 15 identification column (1511-b)). The FIG.15 hosting-location server (1500) also retrieves the URL-location fromthe ‘Location’ column (1511-a) in FIG. 15 database table (1511), whichrepresents the FIG. 14 first domain (1410) for the FIG. 15 firstremote-location server (1515). The FIG. 15 hosting-location server(1500) uses the retrieved URL-location to communicate with the FIG. 15first remote-location server (1515), which is hosted at FIG. 14 firstdomain (1410). The FIG. 15 hosting-location server (1500) passes theidentifications ‘AB’ and ‘12’ (rows #1 and #2 of FIG. 15 number column(1511-c)) first remote-location server (1515). FIG. 15 firstremote-location server (1515) uses the received identification ‘AB’ tomatch first content ID ‘AB’ (1520) with the FIG. 14 good for sale(1406). The FIG. 15 first remote-location server (1515) then returns theFIG. 14 good for sale (1406) to the FIG. 15 hosting-location server(1500). The FIG. 15 hosting-location server (1500) then renders thereceived good for sale (1406) into the page with the FIG. 12 contentpage (1200) and the same is true for the FIG. 14 first advertising(1408). The same explanation applies to all other identifications storedin the FIG. 15 database table (1511) and the communication with the FIG.15 second remote-location server (1515-a) follows the same principle asfor the communication for FIG. 15 first remote-location server (1515)and the explanation given for the FIG. 15 first remote-location server(1515) applies to FIG. 15 second remote-location server (1515-a) aswell.

A user-suggested remote content may have other content from the remotelocation associated with the user's suggested content. Once the user'ssuggested content from the remote host is retrieved by the hostingserver, the hosting server implements steps of: processing the receivedcontent page; and retrieving from the remote location associated contentto the user's suggested content. Associated content is any type ofcontent associated with the user's suggested content and may be paid ornon-paid content or a combination of paid and non-paid content. If theassociated content is a paid content, then once the user interacts withit, the remote server bills and receives the payment for the userinteraction. User interaction may be paid to the hosting server as wellusing the same procedures described above in which all the involvedparties may get paid for the user interaction. For example, parties suchas the user doing the interaction, the website hosting the content andthe content provider.

The method may thus include steps of: receiving at a hosting server auser request for a content and the content having an association with acontent hosted by a remote host; the hosting server retrieving from anon-transitory storage at the content host's an identification and aURL-location of the remote host; the hosting server using theURL-location of the remote host and opening a communication connectionwith the remote host and transmitting to the remote host theidentification; the hosting server receiving from the remote host acontent associated with the identification; and, the hosting serverrendering the received content with the user's requested content in acontent page and transmitting the content page to be viewed by the userat a client device. The association may be a user initiated association.

Once contents from the remote locations are displayed for the suggestinguser's selection there will be objects associated with each content andthe object will include the content's ID and the content's ID will besaved at the content host's server hosting the content, which receivesthe suggestion. The appropriate ID in FIG. 15 identification column(1511-b) will be associated with the content receiving the suggestionand be associated with the remote location supplying the content. The‘Location’ column (1511-a) in FIG. 15 database table (1511) containscontent IDs for the FIG. 14 first remote location (1402) and FIG. 14second remote location (1412). For sake of simplicity, the ID of thecontent receiving the suggestion, FIG. 12 content page (1200) or thesuggesting user's ID are not presented again in FIG. 15.

After the user's suggested contents are accepted, the suggestedcontent's ID, remote hosting location's ID or domain address, and thecontent receiving the suggestion are saved at FIG. 15 database (1510).Thereafter, the system will use the saved information to request remotecontent from the remote location any time a user accesses the contentpage having the suggested content. Or, the hosting server may copy thesuggested content from the remote location and save it in non-transitorymemory on the hosting server. Or, the suggested content may already beintegral part of the hosting server.

If the suggested contents are not saved in the hosting server, theserver will use the saved contents IDs and pass them to the remote hostin a string like: “<www.site-a.com?id=AB>” and the FIG. 14 first remotelocation (1402) in this instance, will return the ‘AB’ (1520) content,FIG. 14 good for sale (1406), which is associated with the ‘AB’ (1520)identification. The passing may be done differently where all the IDsassociated with the remote host may be sent at once and the remote hostwill return the associated group of contents to the requesting hostingserver. The transportation means may be implement using web service,peer-to-peer, or any other means that may be used to transport digitalinformation between computers.

Preferred methods may be implemented to: aggregate remote contents to alocal-receiving host; use form elements; drag-and-drop; and otheravailable means not describe herein. Once an object is select by theuser, the receiving host will extract the remote content's ID and theremote host's ID from the displayed object and the extracted IDs will beused by the hosting server to associate remote contents to the localhosted content, the content receiving the suggestion. This is a novelapproach since other means will simply display the remote content and alink as to enable a user to be redirected to the actual hosting locationof the hosted content. In this novel approach, the suggested content istransparent to the user accessing the content page with the suggestedcontent rendered therein.

Preferred methods may be implemented such that the system offers avariety of contents (advertising, goods for sale, services for sale,etc.). A user may, at any time after beginning viewing the content page,select a link or some other kind of selecting means and the system willbring contents related to the objects of the content page for the userselection. The user may type keywords, category, subcategory, the actualname of the facility and related contents will be displayed to the user.If the user enters a name of a facility like a name of a hotel, thesystem may bring advertising, goods for sale, services for sale, etc.,from the user's choice facility. The user will then make a selection andonce the page is displayed to a second user in the future, thosesuggested contents are displayed on the content page, like contentrelated to the hotel the user suggested.

The displayed content may include a link to the suggesting user's webpage, like in a social network or a page within the system and once thelink is selected, the user will be redirected to the page of thesuggesting user. The displayed content may include a link to the profileof the suggesting user, which may display the profile withoutredirecting the user to the suggesting user's profile page. The systemmay be implemented as to enable any interested user viewing the page tocontact the suggesting user with more questions and hints. The purposeis to compensate the suggesting user and the suggesting user will act asa seller to the good, advertising or service. Selling happens once thecontacting user gets a reply back from the suggesting user, much like asales person offering additional information before a buyer is ready tomake a purchase.

Thus a preferred method will include steps of providing a clickable linkto paid content from a content distributor on the server computer; andpaying the content distributor for each click on the clickable link tothe paid content. This method may further include steps of receiving thecontent from a provider subject to a condition that the provider mayreceive no compensation for the non-paid content; and paying theprovider for each click on the clickable link to the paid content.

A user-suggested business offering a good for sale or service may alsobe contacted separately to suggest registering with the server. Apreferred method may be implemented by contacting the user-suggestedbusiness to indicate that there are users of the server that areinterested in their offering. The business may agree to register andenable its offerings to be automatically incorporated into suggestinguser's content pages. Such business would also be a potentialadvertiser, thus submitting paid content. User suggestions may beenabled by a user cut-and-paste of a link from a remote content host; orby user selection of a link at a remote content host.

Preferred methods may be implemented to enable businesses to bid onspace on non-paid content pages or on paid content pages (e.g., withgoods or services for sale) to enable positioning their advertisementfor use by suggesting users. For example, a business may prefer theiradvertisement to appear at the top of a list once a suggesting userviews a list of additional offering (contents, goods for sale, servicesfor sale, advertisings, etc.) to be related to content pages. The viewmay be based on a page that the system presents to the user to make aselection and have the selection related to the content page the user isviewing, or may be based on keywords the user will enter in a searchfield of the system page. The bidding process may be based on thehighest bid will have the highest (top) position, or the highest bidwill have keywords for the content to be suggested matching keywords ofthe content page that will have the suggested content displayed in(related thereto), or any other kind of bidding process that will help abusiness entity to place their offering in a better position of theuser's suggesting content page than other competing business entity.

Preferred methods compensate the content writer (provider) with salescommission on the goods or services that are related to the displayedcontent and sold to others. Once good for sale is placed on the contentprovider's page and the good or service is sold, a commission on thesale is paid to the content provider since the content provider ishelping to produce the sale of the good. A commission for a sale may bepaid to all involved parties in performing the sale, including forexample, the user suggesting the good or service for sale. The mechanismof placing a good or service for sale in the page may be any of thealready mentioned methods or any to be later developed that placescontent on the page.

Relating Contents Based on Object in the View Area of the Content Page

Preferred methods include a step for tracking the user's staying time onthe page as well to track the user's movement on the page, like trackingthe scrolling of the page and the speed that the user may scroll thepage will determine contents that the user may read or view within thepage. An example of a tracking means to enable this step is ajavascript-event code in the page and once the user scroll the page thejavascript-event code will capture the movement and calculates how fardown, how far up, how far to the right or how far to the left on thepage the user viewing area is and therefore calculates the content areaof the page to determine the content viewed by the user. Another exampleis a pluggable programmable browser's bar for the same purpose. Othersoftware code may also produce the same or similar result. The methodmay be implemented using an installed browser programmable bar.

Preferred methods also include steps to determine user interest insubject matter being viewed and the probability that the user actuallyread the subject matter. For example, calculating the speed with whichthe user scrolls the page, may be useful in implementing the method. Ifthe user scrolls the page at a certain speed, this may be an indicationof the interest of the user in the page contents. If the user scrollsthe page faster, then this is an indication of lower interest.Additionally, if the user scrolls the page at a slower speed, then theprobability that the user is viewing the page is higher. If the userstops scrolling the page then the content's area of the page may beprocessed to determine the content's object the user may be viewing atthe time. The algorithm determines the viewing probability based on thespeed of the page scrolling by a user, if higher speed the probabilityis lower, if slower speed the probability is higher, if the user stopsthen the user may be considered to be viewing the page's content and thepage contents are processed to further related other content to thecontent page or to determine the user's interest to the content page.

Determining how a particular user is consuming the content, that is,reading a page, may be based on that particular user's viewing speed ofan average page of contents. It may also be based on an overall averageof many users. Page viewing can be measured by retaining data on howfast the user scrolls through the page. Then, such speed can be comparedto a predetermined average.

Conclusions about user page consumption are preferably enabled byassessing a user's reading habits and then comparing averages to thespeed on other pages. For instance, the method may include a step ofassessing a user's reading habits by first determining an average forthe user's scrolling speed on multiple pages viewed by the user. Themore pages that are viewed and scrolled, the more the average willbetter reflect that particular user's scrolling speed. This step enablesthe system to become smarter with greater use. A predetermined scrollingspeed may be assigned. For example, a default average scrolling speedmay be assigned using multiple user prior experiences; by usingpreviously assessed scrolling speeds; or simply assessing the potentialuser's interaction with a content page and the user's absorption of thecontent page. The intended target audience of the content may also befactored in. For example, if the contents are highly technical, orrequire advanced education levels, this will also have an impact onscrolling speed. User action may be inferred. For example, if the pageis not scrolled at all, if the page has limited content or has an objectthat requires attention from the user, like the display of video on thepage, then it may be inferred that the user is viewing the page. Themethod may include a step of checking the objects on the page (viewableand non-viewable objects) to determine the speed at which the page maybe scrolled by the user. In some cases, when a user does not scroll thepage, it may be inferred that the user has little interest in thecontent on the page.

Preferred methods may include monitoring a user's reading habits on acontent page and using such knowledge to target content that is relatedto the portion of the content page which the user is currently reading.Monitoring may involve assessing user's reading habits for a specificcontent page then based on the average scrolling speed of other users,deducing the scrolling speed for the specific page. An assessment may bebased on a user pause in scrolling of the page for a certain period oftime. When a pause is detected, the steps include: calculating the pauseposition from page's coordinates (top, bottom, left and right) of theviewable page's content; using keywords or objects (viewable andnon-viewable) in the content at the pause position to target relatedcontents that the client may request from the server; and transmittingto the client device to render the related contents. Rendering may be:into the same content page; on a separate content page, such as a frame;over the content with transparency or over the content without the useof transparency; or in any other useful way to display the relatedcontent to the user.

Preferred methods may include a step of processing of the keywords orobjects at a paused position on a page to reflect the intellectualcomposition of the content page. Such processing may be done by a servercomputer, which may be the computer hosting the content that isdisplayed at the client computer's screen, or may be a server computerthat has access to the displayed content. If the method is implementedby a server computer, then the client computer communicates with theserver computer passing information related to the user's scrolling ofthe page. The determination of the part of the content page that theuser may be interacting with or the user may be reading may be assessedby the objects rendered on the page, if the object is a visual objectand the visual object is determined to be in the user's full view, thevisual object may be determined to be the part of the page where theuser's viewing is focused on the content page. Thus, the method mayinclude a step of directing the client computer to analyze the objectsof the viewable area of the content page. Based on the client computer'sanalysis, the client passes the relevant objects to the server computerand the server computer receives the relevant objects. The servercomputer then searches for a set of related content. The server computerthen provides to the client computer the set of related content and theclient renders (displays) the received related content. Alternatively,the client computer already possesses the related content and the clientprocesses the objects of the viewable area of the displayed content pageand renders the related content to the content page as well.

Once the content at the paused position of the content page, e.g.,keywords, is determined, then the processing device or the web browserin the client computer, the server, or the client device may use thekeywords to locate related contents at the server or the client devicethat have matching keywords with the content at the paused position.

Other objects of the content page may be used for the purpose ofrelating content the content area of the content page where the user'sinterest is at that moment. Objects may include visible and non-visibleobjects within the content page. If the page has objects thatdistinguish certain areas of the content page like a title or a word initalics, bold, underlined, etc., then these distinguishable objects maybe used as target keywords for relating other contents. Any other meansnot described herein may be used as well without departing from the truespirit and scope of the invention. For instance, the objects of theviewable area may be used in conjunction with the viewing user'sprofiling data like address location, sex, income, etc. to targetcontent to the content page. It may be implemented that the objects ofthe viewable area of the content page may be related to other objects ofcontents previously viewed by the viewing user. Or, it may be such thatbased on a group of contents previously viewed by the user may be usedto derive a one or more classification of contents that the userinteracts with like: science fiction, health, travel, etc. and use theclassification to relate to the objects of the content's viewable areato target other contents thereto. Alternatively, the forming of suchclassification may be used to target content to any kind of content pageand not necessarily just the targeting of content to a viewable area ofa content page.

FIG. 16 illustrates a FIG. 16 content page (1600) and FIG. 16 contentarea (1600-a) being viewed by the user. This occurs the moment the userstops scrolling and after a specified time threshold happens and it mayme just a second after the scrolling stops, or it may be at the momentthe user stops scrolling the page or it may be based on preset timethreshold. The FIG. 16 content area (1600-a) contains a content portionand at the top of the FIG. 16 content area (1600-a) the keyword ‘SanFrancisco’ appears and the algorithm may process the whole area anddecides that the FIG. 16 first advertising (1602) is the best targetbecause the location of the keyword ‘San Francisco’ is at the top of theviewing area and further down the page states ‘stayed’ then the besttargeted advertising is FIG. 16 first advertising (1602) that is relatedto an accommodation in San Francisco. The same happens to FIG. 16 secondadvertising (1604), FIG. 16 third advertising (1606), and FIG. 16 fourthadvertising (1608). They are related to keywords as they appear on theviewing area of the content page from top to bottom of the viewing area,like FIG. 16 fourth advertising (1608) relates to keywords ‘dream cometrue’ and they are at the very bottom of the FIG. 16 content area(1600-a) of FIG. 16 content page (1600).

Preferred methods may include a step of displaying related contents inan order depending on the positional height on the display of therelated keywords that caused their selection. Thus, the order thatrelated contents are displayed on the content page may be based on theorder that keywords appearing in the viewing area of the content page.For example, where the FIG. 16 first order position (1610) relates tothe first position and based on the content top position that is withinthe FIG. 16 content area (1600-a). The same is true for the FIG. 16fourth order position (1620) that is related to keywords of the contentthat is at the very bottom of the FIG. 16 content area (1600-a) of theFIG. 16 content page (1600). This is one example of relating contentbased on the viewing area of the content page. Related contents mayfollow any order desired. Examples are: related content may appear onthe top of the list and the keywords of the content in the viewing areaof the content page may appear on the bottom of the viewing contentarea; and related content may appear near, next to, or over the keywordsof the content page.

In preferred methods, once a user starts scrolling and the scrolling maymove the user's viewing area to a different area of the content page,related contents will change accordingly to reflect the new user'sviewing area of the content page.

FIG. 17 illustrates a user moving of the viewing area of the contentpage by scrolling the content page up on the client-computer's screen.FIG. 16 content page (1600) is the same but the viewing area is newviewing area, FIG. 17 viewing area (1700). Thus, the related contentshave changed: FIG. 17 first content (1702) in FIG. 17 first contentposition (1710) is different from that of FIG. 16. Also, the lastrelated content in FIG. 16 at the FIG. 16 fourth advertising (1608) nolonger appears at the FIG. 17 fourth advertising (1718) because theviewing area changed the displayed area content and new related contentis now displayed. Thus, new related content is shown at FIG. 17 firstcontent position (1710), which is related to keywords ‘fly to SanFrancisco’ that appear on the top of the user's viewable content at thetop of the FIG. 17 viewing area (1700).

Targeting Content to a User Based Previous User's Visited Location

Preferred methods include a step of targeting content to a user based onthe user previously visited location. Such previously visited locationmay be a geographical or physical location. Examples include: where theuser has lived, a location where the user has purchased a good or aservice, a previous tourist location where the user has visited and/orstayed, a previous location where the user has been and was recorded bytracking devices like a smart phone in the form of saving a GPS (GlobalPositioning System), and a location tracked by a longitude and latitudecoordinates an a geographical area used by a GPS system.

The user may have lived in a particular location, city, state, street,zip code, etc., and the system may have such information about the userindicating a previous location where the user has been. Once the useraccesses the system the system may relate contents that are locationbased and target such content to the user based on a prior locationwhere the user has been. The contents that the system may target can beany kind of content including, advertising, good for sale, service forsale, instructional contents, or any other kind of imaginable contentthat may be target to the user and is based on the user's priorlocation.

For instance, assume that a user has lived in San Francisco, Calif. Oncethat user visits the system, the system may target content which is SanFrancisco related, such as for example, hotels, restaurants, theaters,etc, located in San Francisco, Calif. If the user has visited aparticular location in San Francisco, for instance visited the UnionSquare in San Francisco, Calif., and this location was saved by a GPSdevice like an smart phone, the system may target content to the userthat is related to the Union Square area and may include advertisingrelated to restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions, stores, etc. thatis located in surroundings of the Union Square area in San Francisco,Calif.

FIG. 18 illustrates a list of past locations previously visited by theFIG. 18 user (1800) and FIG. 18 targeted contents (1810) that arerelated to previous location that was visited by the user.

Targeting Content to a User Based the User's Ground Orientation on aCompass

A preferred method includes a step of targeting contents to a user basedon the user's ground orientation (south, north, east, west, northwest,etc.) on a compass of a portable device operated by the user. Forinstance, the portable device may have a compass indicating the grounddirection that the user intends to go to reach a destination. A step mayinclude targeting content at or on the way to the destination. Forexample, if the user is heading in a southerly direction, the stepincludes targeting content that may be found in a location south ofwhere the user is at that moment. The targeting may be accomplished bythe server or the user's portable device using the GPS location of thedevice and using GPS based locations of content on the device or serverto target the content. If implemented on the server, the server receivesfrom the portable device its GPS coordinates and the ground orientationand the server calculates the coordinates of the GPS location and theground orientation. The server then implements a step of locating othercontent that is GPS based in the direction desired; and sending thecontent to the portable device.

Algorithms are known that translate GPS-based location (longitude andlatitude) into specific zip code or street address; some have theprecision of the street number. A step may be included of receiving auser-specified input, such as distance from the GPS location, or theground direction the user desires to receive content from. For example,the server may receive a user designation of: one mile ahead of theuser's present location; a half-mile ahead of the user's presentlocation; one hundred feet ahead of the user's present location; or anydistance set by the user. Once the user moves and the direction changes,the device may update the content by calculating a new GPS location andthe new ground direction. New content may thus be displayed to the userbased on the new GPS location the user's ground direction the device ispointing to.

A user-specified input of distance from the GPS location from where theuser currently is used by the server for calculating how far ahead fromwhere the user is for the purpose of fetching contents from locationsthat are just ahead of the user and in the same direction the user'sportable device is pointing to. The user-specified input of distance isadded to the GPS parameters (either the longitude or the latitude, itmay be that the user-specified input of distance is added to both:longitude and latitude) in the same direction the user's portable deviceis pointing thereto. By adding the user-specified input of distance toeither or both of the longitude and latitude it will increase thedistance range to just ahead from where the user is and on the directionwhere the user's portable device is pointing to.

The method may include a step of enabling the user to specify otherparameters. For instance, if the user-specified input of distance isthree miles and the user is facing north then the server implements astep of presenting related content to the user that is located threemiles north from where the user is currently located. The server mayenable the user-specified input to include a radius, for example a onemile radius, so that the server will find and present related content tothe user that is within a radius of one mile radius around the path tothe destination three miles north from where the user is currentlylocated.

A preferred method may include a step of sending a coupon or otheroffering of business located in the user's surroundings. If the userpatronizes the business, then the user may redeem the offering (coupon,discount and others) once the user arrives at the businessestablishment. If the content is based on advertising, then the user mayreceive a commission from the advertising once the advertising isclicked on or if the user actually goes into the business establishmentassociated with the advertising. A step may include receiving the user'sGPS and if the received GPS location associates with advertising thatwas presented to the user, then the user gets a commission, which meansthe user is at the actual business location from the prior advertisementpresented to the user.

The method may be further implemented with the steps of: contacting thebusiness establishment's server; and passing the discount to thebusiness for automatically applying to the user's bill. Thus, once theuser is ready to pay for services rendered or goods sold, the couponvalue is automatically deducted from the user's bill. These steps arepreferably performed after the server determines the user's location tobe at the business establishment that had a coupon or offered thediscount promotion previously presented to the user. Such automaticimplementation may be implemented with a step of associating a code tothe user's device and with the server implementing the method. Once theuser employs the portable device to make payment to the businessestablishment, then the deduction automatically applied. If the portabledevice is not used to make payment, then the user may furnish the codeto the business to apply the discount to the purchase. The redeemingmechanism may be redeemable points or any other means for compensatingthe user disclosed herein.

Offering a Coupon to a Clicker and/or Content Provider

The method will preferably compensate the clicker and/or the contentprovider for click on an advertising or the purchase of a good orservice, where the advertiser or the seller may send a coupon to theclicker and/or the content provider and the coupon may be redeemed atthe issuing facility on the coupon receiver patronizes the issuingfacility. The coupon may be give once a clicker stays a certain timelength at the issuing facility site, web page, etc. The coupon may beissued once the clicker answers a question at the issuing facility'swebsite, web page, etc. This is a novel means since the clicker and thecontent provider will have a motivation to patronize issuing couponfacilities and they will retain the brand name of the issuing facilityas well.

Relating a Content Based on Common Classification Group

The disclosed method is useful for relating contents based on a commonclassification between two or more contents. The common classificationis in the form of: a category common to two or more contents; asub-category common to two or more contents; a class common to two ormore contents; etc. Steps include storing a user visited content pages;placing the content pages in a learning module; parsing the contentpages'objects using the learning module; choosing which objects are tobe grouped in a particular category; and forming a particularclassification of visited content pages for the user. For instance, if auser views many pages related to travel and object-words like: travel,visit, air fare, etc., then the method will deduce that the pages arerelated to a classification ‘tour’, ‘vacation’, ‘travel’, etc. Anadditional step is classifying a group of pages to one or moreclassifications based on the content pages' objects. The server mayclassify the content page at the time the user is visiting a contentpage or the server may classify the content-pages as batch at off peaktime.

The learning-system module may learn by comparing a content page'sobject with a list of other objects that has been classified by thesystem or by a human being, for instance, using known objects to berelated to a particular classification. For example: ‘trip’ is relatedto ‘travel,’ but only if the word ‘trip’ and another word related totravel appears on the same content page, for instance the word‘vacation.’ Since the word ‘trip’ has more than one meaning, thelearning system should be smart enough not to confuse the word ‘trip’related to travel with the word ‘trip’ related to a differentclassification.

In other words, the method includes a step of parsing user visitedcontent pages' objects and deriving one or more classifications for theuser (first classification group). Once the user visits a content page,a step includes parsing the content page's objects. Another step isderiving one or more classifications for the content page (secondclassification group). Another step is associating contents with thecontent page, where the associating contents have a similar or the sameclassification with the first classification group and the secondclassification group. The step of deriving a classification group for acontent page may be accomplished by parsing the content page's objectswhile the content page is being saved by the server computer or at anytime, such as, in an off peak time of the server computer.

The parsing step may be used for all the objects of a content page orjust for the objects that are viewable by a user. If the parsing step isperformed just for the viewable objects of the content page, then oncethe server computer receives the screen coordinates from a clientdevice, the server computer implements steps of: fetching the content;parsing the objects that are associated with the user's viewable area ofthe content page; using the objects to find a classification group forthe objects; using the classification group to categorize objects in theviewable content area; associating the classification with one or moreother classification groups for the user; and targeting new content tothe content page on the client computer based on one or more contentsthat relate to the two common classification groups.

The method may be implemented in such way that when a content page isrequested by a client for a user at the client device and just beforethe server sends the content page to the client device, the serverparses the content page's objects and find a classification group, thenthe server matches the classification group against contents stored inthe server having the same or similar classification group. In thisparticular situation, the matching of contents to a classificationgroups is not necessarily related to the user's classification group.

The method may further a steps of deriving a classification group fromseveral sources including: user profiling data; a user's comment on acontent page, a user's visit to the user's friend's profiling page's ina social network; the user's friend's profiling data, etc.; andcompensating users helping in the process of generation an incomestream.

FIG. 19 illustrates a FIG. 19 content group (1900), a FIG. 19 LearningSystem (1902), a FIG. 19 classification group (1904) and a FIG. 19related content page (1908). The FIG. 19 content group (1900) is parsedby the FIG. 19 Learning System (1902) and the FIG. 19 classificationgroup (1904) is derived. The FIG. 19 related content page (1908) isrelated to ‘Classification D’ (1906) of the FIG. 19 content group(1904).

FIG. 20 illustrates a FIG. 20 content page (2000) being fed to the FIG.19 Learning System (1902) and a FIG. 20 classification (2002) derivedfrom the FIG. 20 content page (2000). While a single FIG. 20classification (2002) for the FIG. 20 content page (2000) is shown, morethan one classification group may be derived. Deriving the FIG. 20classification (2002) for the content page (2000) may be performed bythe server computer at the time the server computer saves the contentpage (2000) or it may be done at any other time, such as, at off-peaktime.

FIG. 21 illustrates a step of associating the FIG. 20 content page(2000) and FIG. 19 related content page (1908) associated with the FIG.20 content page (2000). Once a client device accesses the FIG. 20content page (2000), the server computer (or any computing device)parses the FIG. 20 content page (2000) and derives the FIG. 20classification (2002), namely ‘Classification DD.’ The server computerthen performs a step of accessing the FIG. 19 classification group(1904) and retrieves from the FIG. 19 classification group (1904),‘Classification D’ (1906). ‘Classification D’ (1906) of FIG. 19 issimilar to the FIG. 20 classification (2002), namely ‘ClassificationDD.’ The server computer implements a step of fetching FIG. 19 relatedcontent page (1908) and sends it to the client device for display, asshown in FIG. 21 content page (2100). The FIG. 21 content page (2100)includes FIG. 20 content page (2000) that was requested plus the FIG. 19related content page (1908) that was derived. Once sent, this finishesthe process of relating a content to a content page based on a commonclassification group.

Relating a Content Based on Saved User's Information at a Device

Another preferred method of the present invention includes a step oftargeting content to a user based on the user's private data stored inthe user's personal devices (laptop computer, desktop computer, mobiledevices and others) or in a cloud (computer on the Internet used tobackup user's data). When the user accesses the server, the serverchecks the user's private data stored within the server, or stored inanother computer, and targets user secondary content that is related tothe user's private data.

The method preferably involves a server (also known as a servercomputer). While receiving a request for a content page, the serverimplements steps of: identifying objects within the content page;finding an association between the identified objects and other contentssaved at the user's devices or other user saved contents in a server ina network cloud (the term cloud refers to the on-demand provision ofcomputational resources (data, software) via a computer network); andassociating the other contents with the user identification stored inthe server. The server, after identifying the objects within the contentpage requested, may implement a step of using the objects to find anassociation with other objects of the user's stored information(software applications, personal data, contents of any kind, profilingdata, etc.) then locating other contents that are related to the to theuser's stored information in the cloud or in the user's personaldevices.

If implemented in the user's personal devices, then the user's personaldevice may do all the required processing of the method. If implementedon the cloud, the cloud server or servers will perform the method aloneor in conjunction with other devices connected to the cloud and mayinclude a personal device.

The server preferably implements steps of: finding first content havinga first association between user requested content and the user's storedinformation; identifying a second content having an association betweenthe user's stored information and the requested content. Once the firstcontent and the second content are found or identified, the serverimplements steps of: fetching the first content and the second content;then rendering the first content, second content and requested contentin the content page. The content page is not necessarily a single page,it may be two separate pages where the requested content is firsttransmitted to the client device and the content page comprising aframe, and once the client executes the frame (e.g., an iframe), theserver implements steps of: processing a copy of the content to find thefirst content and the second content; and transmitting the relatedcontent to the client device for rendering into the frame.Alternatively, these steps be implemented by two or more servers orcomputers, used at a single or multiple locations. For example, a firstserver implements a step of sending the content page with the frame.This first server may be at a first location. A second server implementsa step of sending related content to the frame. The second server may beat a second location. The second server may have a copy of the requestedcontent stored thereon.

The method may include a step of finding a single association betweenthe user's requested content and the user's stored contents in theserver computer (cloud or personal devices). Once the server receives auser request for a content page, the server employs an object on thecontent page to find a relationship with the user's stored informationin the server computer. Once a relationship is found, the serverimplements steps of: locating at least one content that is related tothe user's stored information; rendering the related content with therequested content; sending a content page to be displayed by the clientdevice operated by the user; and upon income generation by the userinteraction with advertising, or purchasing goods and services for sale,etc. on the content page, a commission may be paid to the user owningthe information.

An alternative preferred method is implemented by a computer, which maybe a server or other device with networking capability. This method isapplicable when content is related to a content page that was requestedby the user based on a relationship between the content and the user'sstored information in the computer. For instance, the user's storedinformation relates to songs the user has downloaded from a musician andthe content is an advertising promoting the musician's tour.

This alternative method is a novel way of presenting content to a userthat is based on the user's stored information in the computer, sinceemploying the method will remind the user of activities that are ofinterest to the user while the user is viewing a content page that mayhave no relationship with the user's stored information. Relatingcontent based on the user's stored information or user's prioractivities is new. The user's stored information may reside at theserver serving the related content, in any user's personal device, oreven in another server not associated with the server serving therelated content. If based on the user's personal device, the server, forexample, sending the related content may access the user's personaldevice at any time to index the user's stored information or to targetcontent to the client device as described herein. If the server accessesthe client device to send content to the client device then the contentmay be directed to another content that is being viewed using thedevice.

FIG. 22 illustrates a preferred method using a FIG. 22 server (2200).The FIG. 22 server (2200) may be any kind of hosting computer, such as auser's personal device including laptop, desktop, personal phone, andany kind of mobile and non-mobile device. The FIG. 22 server (2200) maybe located in a cloud.

The FIG. 22 server (2200) hosts or stores thereon FIG. 22 User'sPersonal Information (2204). The FIG. 22 User's Personal Information(2204) is used by the FIG. 22 server (2200) to relate FIG. 22 RelatedContent (2206) to a FIG. 22 User (2202) once the FIG. 22 User (2202)requests content from the FIG. 22 server (2200). Upon request of theFIG. 22 User (2202), the FIG. 22 server (2200) fetches FIG. 22 RequestedContent (2208) and uses the relationship between the FIG. 22 RelatedContent (2206) and the FIG. 22 User's Personal Information (2204) tosend the FIG. 22 Related Content (2206) with the FIG. 22 RequestedContent (2208) to the FIG. 22 user (2202).

Paying a Plurality of Content Providers for Providing Contents to aSingle Content Page

An alternative method is used when there is a plurality of contentproviders in an environment, such as a social network or micro-bloggingsite, which receives a commission based on the paid content that isadvertised, or good sold and associated with a non-paid content pagethat includes contents from a plurality of users. The method enableseach user of the content page to receive a commission for the incomegenerated through user interaction with the content page. Thepaid-content may be just displayed on the non-paid content page or thepaid content may have an association with other non-paid content, orhave an association with private data of one or more users contributingto the non-paid content page. The private data may be user's personalinformation or user's content stored in the user's personal device.

The method may be implemented in websites like social network,micro-blogging sites, blogging sites or any hosting environment wheremore than one user contributes to a content page. A social network siteis used herein as an example. In a social network, more than one userprovides data that is consumed by a client device. The contentstypically include: comments on another user's page, shared photos,shared links, etc. If user-a shares a link, user-b shares a photo anduser-c shares a comment, then all three users are responsible for theincome generated by the social network website and the method enablesincome generated by the social network website on the content page thatwas contributed by three users to be shared with the three users.

The process of relating second contents to the plurality of contentcontributors for a requested content page may be any method describedherein or it may be any method used to relate content to a content page.In the case of a link, the server may initiate the steps of: accessingthe destination of the user-supplied link; retrieving a content page atthe destination; identifying objects within the retrieved content page;associating other content in any manner described in this disclosure orin any manner of relating a second object with any identified objectwithin the retrieved content page to a user-requested content page.Other methods of associating second content may be used, such asdescribed elsewhere in this disclosure. For instance, relating contentto be rendered in the content page and the second content based onprofiling information of one or more of the content contributors to therequested content page.

When the server retrieves content associated with a user's suppliedlink, the server may save the object within the retrieved content or theserver may save the content. Saving may be in a database controlled bythe server, which permits instant access to the stored objects. Thestored objects may be used at any time to facilitate a search forrelated contents stored on the server. The stored objects may be used atany time a user's search request is received by the server computer, inthis situation, the server may supply the complete content that wasfetched based on the user supplied link, or the server may only supplythe user's supplied link as part of the page search result.

The user's supplied link may be employed by the server computer for:indexing the content identified by the user's supplied link; retrievingone or more objects at the destination of the user's supplied link;forming a search engine using the one or more objects. When multipleuser's supplied links are used in this way, it forms a better method toidentify quality contents because they were suggested by users. Users'suggested contents better reflect a search result than if the contentsare simply fetched by a search engine without regard for contentquality. The objects of the users' supplied link may be related to oneor more user's profile, profile of the user who suggested the content'slink or the group of users who suggested a plurality of contents' links.The association of one or more user's profile with the users' suppliedcontent link may be used to target other contents to the content pagesearch result using any method that offers a search result based onuser's supplied content's link.

The code to implement the method is preferably stored in a non-transientstorage medium on a server computer. Once the method is processed by theserver computer the method enables a plurality of users to providecontent to be displayed on a content page. The server computerimplements a step of receiving a request for the content page, which isthe requested content page. The requested content page includes aplurality of contents provided by the plurality of users of the servercomputer. The server computer implements steps of: finding anassociation between an object or content on the requested content pageand at least one other paid content or non-paid content (associatedcontent); rendering (displaying to the user who sent the request) theassociated content in the requested content page; and, if the anycompensation is received for the user's interaction with the associatedcontent, paying a commission (portion of the compensation) to theplurality of users who provided content to be displayed on the contentpage.

When the method utilizes a user-supplied link to content, theuser-supplied link is preferably stored in a server computer. The servercomputer implements steps of fetching the content, which comprisesobjects such as text, images, etc.; processing the objects to identifythem; identifying second content having a relationship with at least oneobject from the fetched content; and, transmitting the second content tobe displayed on a client device.

FIG. 23 illustrates a FIG. 23 webpage (2300) comprising three objectssupplied by three users: FIG. 23 Content-A (2302) supplied by FIG. 23User-A (2304): FIG. 23 Content-B (2306) supplied by FIG. 23 User-B(2308); and FIG. 23 Content-C (2310) supplied by FIG. 23 User-C (2312).

FIG. 23 webpage (2300) further comprises FIG. 23 Related Content (2314)having an association with the objects of FIG. 23 webpage page (2300)based on a FIG. 23 relationship (2316) between the three users (user'sprofiling data (not shown)), who are content contributors. Theassociation with the objects of FIG. 23 webpage page (2300) mayalternatively or in addition be based on a FIG. 23 second relationship(2318) with the objects of the three supplied contents by the threeusers. FIG. 23 Related Content (2314) may have both such relationshipssimultaneously or may be based on just one relationship. Therelationship may be of any kind of relationship.

Targeting Content to a User Based on the User's Acquaintances

An alternative preferred method is used when targeting content to a userbased on the user's acquaintance (friends on a social network, or afollower in a micro-blog site, or contents on an address-book, etc.) Themethod includes steps of: targeting content to a user based on somethinginvolving one or more of the user's acquaintances. For example, thissomething may include: user-acquaintance preferences; auser-acquaintance prior visited content page; a user-acquaintance priorgood or service purchased; a user-acquaintance prior clickedadvertisement; any other user-acquaintance descriptor that correlatesone user to another user. Once income is generated by the userinteracting with paid-content, then a commission (portion of) in paymentof the generated income may be paid to the user and/or to the user'sacquaintance.

As an example, a user visits a website (requests a page) related totravel and one or more of his acquaintances on a social network site hastravel as a hobby listed in their profile. One of such acquaintances mayhave visited New York. The server will implement steps of: targeting(identifying) related content, such as an advertisement, a service or agood for sale that is related to travel and to New York based on: theclassification of the website as travel (or the content's object of thevisited page); the user-acquaintance's profiling data which has travel;and New York that offers a relationship to the content page. The serverrenders (sends to the user for display) the related content in thewebsite or page requested by the user.

A preferred method is used for relating content to a user. It is basedon the user-acquaintance's data. The code implementing the method ispreferably stored in a non-transient medium in a server computer. Themethod includes steps of: receiving a request for a content page from aregistered user at the server computer; the server computer accessingone or more of the registered user's acquaintance's data; using the datato find a relationship between the data and a content; rendering thecontent in a page; transmitting the page to be displayed by a clientdevice; and, optionally finding an association between the requestedcontent, the user-acquaintance's data and at least one other content.

FIG. 24 illustrates a FIG. 24 content page (2400) comprising FIG. 24Content (2402) and FIG. 24 Targeted Content (2404). FIG. 24 TargetedContent (2404) is related to FIG. 24 Content (2402) based on a FIG. 24relationship (2406) between FIG. 24 Content (2402) and the FIG. 24Targeted Content (2404). The FIG. 24 relationship (2406) can be anykind, such as the use of the objects in the FIG. 24 Content (2402) toderive the relationship.

FIG. 24 Targeted Content (2404) may be associated with FIG. 24 Content(2402) based on a FIG. 24 relationship (2408), which is based on theFIG. 24 user (2416) acquaintances' information data, and the data may beof any data type. Once the server receives a content request for FIG. 24Content (2402) from the FIG. 24 user (2416), the server retrieves FIG.24 Targeted Content (2404) based on one or both of the FIG. 24relationship (2406) and the FIG. 24 relationship (2408). If the serveruses only the FIG. 24 relationship (2408) the server will fetchinformation from one or more of the FIG. 24 user (2416) acquaintancesincluding: FIG. 24 User's Acquaintances-A (2410), FIG. 24 User'sAcquaintances-B (2412), and FIG. 24 User's Acquaintances-C (2414). Theserver may use any number of the FIG. 24 user (2416) acquaintances interm to determine the FIG. 24 relationship (2408) to target (identifyand send) the FIG. 24 Targeted Content (2404) to the FIG. 24 user(2416). The server may employ one or both relationships.

Broadcasting a Virtual Content to a Secondary User

A preferred method is used for presenting content in virtual form to afirst user (user-a) after a second user (user-b) of a website adds thecontent to a server hosting the website. This method enables thepresentation of content to a broad user base, such as in emergencysituations where a message needs to be available to a broad base ofrecipients on a short notice. For instance, user-a adds content-a touser-a's hosting environment (website, social network, micro-blogging,blogging, etc.) and user-b chooses to host user-a's content-a andcontent-a becomes available to user-b's hosting environment. A thirduser user-c may select to accept any of selected content from user-b.Now content-a will be available to user-c even though user-c hasn'tchosen content-a. Content-a is available to user-c through theconnection between user-c and user-b.

FIG. 25 illustrates this method. FIG. 25 Content (2500) is associated toFIG. 25 User-a (2502). FIG. 25 Content (2500) is available to any useraccessing FIG. 25 User-a's (2502) webpage. Any other user may link toFIG. 25 User-a (2502) as to FIG. 25 inherit Content (2500) from FIG. 25User-a (2502) hosting site and present the content as if the content washosted at the inheriting user's hosting environment. Users may FIG. 25inherit Content (2500) from FIG. 25 User-a (2502) by choosing FIG. 25Content (2500) from the hosting environment of FIG. 25 User-a (2502) orby choosing to automatically accept contents from FIG. 25 User-a (2502)like following FIG. 25 User-a (2502), this process is called criteria.For instance, FIG. 25 User-b (2504) may choose to accept any content orselected content based on any selection criteria from FIG. 25 User-a(2502).

If FIG. 25 User-b (2504) elects to receive content from FIG. 25 User-a(2502) by choosing a criteria (2506), then FIG. 25 Content (2500) isFIG. 25 available (2508) to FIG. 25 User-b (2504).

If FIG. 25 User-c (2510) chooses to receive content from FIG. 25 User-b(2504) based on FIG. 25 criteria (2512), then FIG. 25 Content (2500) isFIG. 25 available (2514) to FIG. 25 User-c (2510) based on FIG. 25criteria (2512) which enables FIG. 25 User-c (2510) to receive FIG. 25Content (2500) through FIG. 25 User-b (2504).

If FIG. 25 User-d (2516) decides to receive content from FIG. 25 User-c(2510) by choosing FIG. 25 criteria (2518) then FIG. 25 Content (2500)becomes FIG. 25 available (2520) to FIG. 25 User-d (2516) through FIG.25 User-c (2510), through FIG. 25 User-b (2504) and through FIG. 25User-a (2502).

FIG. 25 User-a (2502) is the first user in the chain of users. FIG. 25User-a (2502) is the owner of Content (2500). FIG. 25 User-b (2504) isthe first propagator of FIG. 25 Content (2500) to FIG. 25 User-b (2504)associated acquaintances. FIG. 25 User-c (2510) is the secondpropagator. FIG. 25 User-d (2516) is the third and last propagator ofContent (2500).

For example, the server may implement a step of enabling a third user(user-c), who is associated with the second user (user-b), to elect toreceive selected contents from the second user (user-b) automatically,that is, once the second user (user-b) places (adds) the content. Theserver will enable the third user (user-c) to have the content displayedautomatically on the third user's profile based on the third user'selection to accept the content from the second user (user-b). The thirduser (user-c) may elect to accept all contents that the second user(user-b) places on the second user's profile or the third user (user-c)may elect to receive content related to a specific category,sub-category, classification, etc. from the second user (user-b).

This method is preferably used for websites that enable a first user tosee the content of second user. In this kind of website, the second usermay elect to accept content provided by the first user. For instance, inthe prior example, if user-b is a follower of user-a, then any timeuser-a places a content into user-a's profile, user-b automatically hasaccess to the content based on a set parameter that designates user-b asa follower of user-a.

If user-c elects to receive content from user-b (content posted byuser-b or content received by user-b from other users), then user-c willhave the content that was posted by user-a based on the preset electionof user-c to receive content from user-b. Even though user-c is notassociated with user-a in any form. The election from user-c to acceptcontent from user-b creates an automatic link between user-c and user-abased on user-c's election to receive content from user-b.Alternatively, User-c may elect to accept only contents posted byuser-b; user-c may elect to accept only contents posted by user-b basedon a specific classification; user-c may elect to accept only contentsposted by a third user which user-b follows; or user-c may elect toreceive contents from the third user user-b follows and based on aspecific classification, like: emergency, family, party, travel, hints,etc. User-c may elect to receive content base on any combination of thejust described election alternatives.

The method may include optional steps of detecting a situation where adead-loop occurs and stopping the dead loop. A dead loop is an infiniteloop of code steps, or more accurately a sequence of instructions in acomputer program which loops endlessly, either due to the loop having noterminating condition, having one that can never be met, or one thatcauses the loop to start over. This may occur when user-c elects toautomatically receive a message from user-b; user-b elects toautomatically receive a message from user-a; and user-a elects toautomatic receive message from user-c. A message from user-a will beposted to user-b and user-c then back to user-a, thus forming adead-loop that may be continuously repeated. If a dead loop is formed itmay cause the server to lock up or crash.

The method may be implemented where a fourth user (user-d) receives amessage that was transmitted by user-a. For instance, user-d elects toreceive messages from user-c that was received from any user associatedwith user-d. As we already know, user-c receives message from user-abased in the election of user-c to accept messages from other usersthrough user-b. Now if user-d elects to receive virtual messages, thatis a message received through another user, user-b in this case, thenuser-d will also receive the message from user-a based on a link betweenuser-c and user-b, and, a link between user-b and user-a. If the user-delects to receive message that has a connection with user-c, this willallow user-d to receive message from user-b based on the link betweenuser-d and user-c, but user-d will not be able to receive message fromuser-a because user-d has only elected to receive message one level ofpropagation. So a user may elect to receive a message that has no limitof propagation (broadcasting level), a user may elect to receive messagethat has only one level of propagation or a user may elect to receivemessage that has x level of propagation, that is, the user sets thenumber of levels of a message propagation, the larger the value the moremessages the user will receive, the smaller the value, the fewermessages the user will receive. The user may set, reset or change thelevel of message propagation at any time so as to change the scope ofpropagation and the number of messages to receive.

An example of the method is a computer implements steps of: associatinga first user with a second user; associating a third user with thesecond user; enabling the third user to elect to receive messages fromthe second user; accepting a message from the first user; placing themessage in the profile of the first user; displaying the message in thesecond user's profile based on the association between the first userand the second user; displaying the message in the third user's profilebased on the election of the third user to receive messages from thesecond user; optionally enabling a fourth user to elect to receivemessages from the third user; optionally displaying the message in thefourth user's profile based on the election from the fourth user toreceive message from the third user; optionally, preventing a dead-loopwhile processing the message's propagation; and optionally, allowing auser to set the level of a message's propagation.

A paid content may be targeted to the user's supplied content as well orbe target to the virtual propagated message. The paid content may betargeted based on a relationship, like: a relationship between theuser's supplied content and the paid content (using any of the meansalready described in this disclosure); a relationship between the paidcontent and one or more of user's data (personal profiling data,personal provided information, personal hobby, etc.) participating inthe message propagation or the message provider; a relationship betweenthe paid content and a combination of the users' data (one or more userthat will consume the content) that the user supplied content isdisplayed to; a relationship between the combination of users' data andthe user-supplied content's objects; any other type of combinationbetween the paid content, the user's supplied content, and one or moreof the users' data; or any other type of combination that allows thesystem to target the paid content to one or more users.

The methods described herein are preferably implemented with a step ofpaying a commission to each participant that helps to generate an incomestream. When non-paid content is associated with multiple users, eachuser supplying the non paid content may receive a higher commission,since the non-paid content will be displayed to the multiple users.Thus, the method may include a step of compensating each user, includingthe content provider and those intermediary users receiving propagatedmessages up to the user doing the interaction. Each such user mayreceive a commission based on the generated income.

Alternatively, the user appearing higher in the propagation chain mayreceive a higher commission and a user appearing lower in thepropagation chain gets a lower commission, or vice-verse. For instance,user-a will get a higher commission than user-b, user-b will get ahigher commission than user-c, and user-c will get a higher commissionthan user-d, or vice-verse. Alternatively, user-a may get a commissionfor all the users in the chain; user-b may get a commission for all userin the chain except for interaction of user-a; and user-d may only get acommission for interaction with displayed content.

Selected criteria may be turned off or be changed to different criteriaat any time by a user, if the criteria are turned off then no contentfrom another user will be available to the user. The criteria may belike choosing to accept all contents from a specific user or form agroup of users, it may be based on a particular content classificationform a specific user or from a group of users, it may be based onspecific hobby from one or more users, it may be based on specific paidcontent classification viewed and/or interacted by one or more users, itmay be based on data from one or more user's profiles, or it may bebased on any conceivable means to set a criteria for the purpose ofchoosing to accept a content from one or more users.

The method may be implemented on a computer and include steps of:registering a first user, a second user and a third user; storing datarelated to the first user, the second user and the third user in anon-transient medium on the computer; hosting first-user content;associating the first-user content with the first user; permitting thesecond user to elect to receive the first-user content according to afirst criteria; making the first-user content available to the seconduser according to the first criteria, essentially converting first-usercontent to second-user content; enabling the third user to elect toreceive the second-user content according to a second criteria to acceptsecond-user content from the second user. This last step thus makesfirst-user content available to the third user as second-user content,essentially converting second-user content to third-user content. Thisconversion may be thought of as associating the content with otherusers.

Presentation and the display of content, whether an object, text, amessage, or a page, may be by transmission using any available medium.For example, a message may be transmitted as message to be displayed orconsumed by portable devices like a cell phone, a personal pad or anypersonal device working on a wireless communication medium or any othercommunication medium like a hardwired communication lines in a telephoneor computer network. The implementation may be based on downloading aprogram to portable device, or may be a combination of portable andnon-portable device and a combination of online and off line devices.

Subsidized or Free of Costs Electronic Devices

A method for promoting the distribution of for sale electronic devices(device) to a broad user base and the electronic devices beingsubsidized by paid content, advertising or goods for sale. Theelectronic device may be a pad computer, a cell phone, a mobile deviceof any kind or it may be a television device an automobile with anelectronic device, etc. The subsidizing of the content device (sponsor)may be done as such that a company or investing company invests tomanufacture the device and after the device is distributed the generatedrevenues stream from the device be used to pay the sponsor of thedevice. It may be the sponsor receives all the generated revenues orjust a percentage of the generated revenues.

The electronic device is the disseminator of the paid and non-paidcontents to the user or users using the electronic devices. The devicemay be given away for free and the income generated by the paid contentmay be used to pay for the manufacturing costs of the electronic deviceor to pay the sponsors of the device. It may be that the owner of thepaid content pays upfront for the cost of subsidizing the device and oneor more paid content may be stored in the device and once the device isturned-on or the user interacts with the device, the paid content fromthose who are subsidizing (sponsoring) the device may be displayed tothe user and the paid content may be displayed alone or inserted intoother contents stored in the device or contents downloaded by thedevice.

This kind of subsidizing electronic device will help in bridging theneed for companies in distributing their paid content or brand name andpeople in need for the device without having to pay upfront costs forthe device. This will be very helpful in making tablet devices availableto students who cannot afford to by the technology that is required toget ahead in their education and the job market place. For instance, thepaid content provider business may subsidizes the upfront cost of thedevices and the company subsidizing the device places paid contentstored in the device and every time the device displays the paid contentto the user the device if not connect to a server computer, the devicemay add the display of the paid content locally, if the device isconnected to a server, the server may add the display of the paidcontent and deducts from the amount the company has paid to the system(server doing the accounting) for the amount the company has paid tosubsidize the device. Once the funds deposited by the company providingthe paid content runs out, the system will stop supplying the company'spaid content and notify connected devices to stop displaying thecompany's paid content. Thereafter, the device may display other paidcontent that may or may not be associated with the company sponsor ofthe device.

Once the device is paid in full, the company processing the transaction(the content processor) may continue to provide paid content and thecontent processor may keep the income generated in full or the contentprocessor may pay a commission of the generated income to the holder ofthe electronic device, and the compensation to the device's holder maybe in funds, exchange for merchandize from other paid content'scompanies, or it may be in points that may be later redeemed for goodsor services. After the content device is paid in full, further incomegenerate with the device a portion may be paid to the sponsor of thedevice as well, this way there will be motivation for companies tosponsor devices since the sponsor will continue to receive income evenafter the device has been paid in full.

The advantage of this method is to enable companies to subsidize otherswho may not be able to afford the technology and this will enable agreater number of people access and possession of need technologies, aswell, the companies subsidizing the device may get a lower display orclick rate for users interaction with their paid contents (goods,advertising, services, etc.) Another advantage of this method is toallow the distribution of paid content while the device is not connectedwith the server computer controlling the accounting for the sponsoreddevice, in this manner, once the device connects with the server thenthe server supplies the paid contents that the device will render on thedevice's screen while the user is interacting with the device. Thismethod is very efficient and necessary where a device is used andInternet/network connection is not readily available.

One more advantageous of using this invention is that advertising may beinserted into a content that is already stored in the device and this isdone by the device fetching the paid content stored in the device thenthe device inserts the paid content at specific locations on the contentbeing displayed to the user. For instance, the user opens a content pageand the content page may be related to the user's homework and thecontent page will have specified locations that the device will user toinsert the paid content thereto, even if the device is disconnected fromthe server's content processor.

If the user happens to be a student, the invention will enable thestudent to have access to new technologies and new educational materialswithout having to pay for the technologies or the educational material,since the paid content will subsidize the student's needs by providingthe device and non-paid education materials. While the device isdisplaying the educational material to the student the device willdisplayed the paid content as well. The paid content may be interactiveand not confusing, so the student participation and interest may helpthe student to focus on the education and at the same time become awareof the contribution by the company providing the paid content and thesponsoring the student's education, thus, increasing the company's brandrecognition and customer loyalty, that otherwise, may not have beenpossible. As well, the device may be used while connected with theserver computer and the server computer supplying the paid content asneeded and processing the user's interaction with the device as ithappens.

The embodiment of the present invention will now be described morefully. FIG. 26 illustrates a Free Computing Device (2600) receiving(2625) Free/Paid Content (2605) from the server (2615). The FreeComputing Device (2600) also receives (2630) Advertising/Goods For Sales(2610) from server (2615). Free Computing Device (2600) also receives(2680) content (2650). The Advertising/Goods For Sales (2610) can beinserted (2620) into Free/Paid Content (2605) as well at the time theFree/Paid Content (2605) is transmitted to the Free Computing Device(2600).

The content page (2650) comprises contents (2660) and (2670) and theywere received (2645) contents from server (2615) and provided (2635) byFree/Paid Content (2605) and/or provided (2640) by Advertising/Goods ForSales (2610) and they are inserted (2655 and 2665) into the content page(2650). Once a user interacts with the free and paid contents the usermay be required to supply answers and the answers may be by selectingthe paid content and using them to provide the answer (2675). Thecontent page (2650) comprises designated locations for the insertion ofpaid contents (2655 and 2665). The electronic device may use the contentpage designated location to rotate paid content in the designatedlocation as needed.

The designated locations (2655 and 2665) of the content page (2650) maybe associated with one or more categories, keywords, topographicallocation or any other means for associating content to content-page'slocation. The content page (2650) may be any kind of content includingexecutable software program. Furthermore, the content page (2650) may beprocessed and/or displayed (2680) by the Free Computing Device (2600)and the Free Computing Device (2600) render the paid and non-paidcontent into the content page (2650).

For instance, the content page (2650) may be a homework requiring thestudent to provide answer to the question and the question may be in theform of mathematical questions, as in the example, or any other kind ofquestion. In this particular example, the user/student provides ananswer (2675) that is related to the mathematical question from the leftof the equal sign (2670).

If the electronic device (2600) is disconnected from a server computer(2615), the electronic device (2600) is responsible for managing thepaid content accounting for the number of interaction and which contentis displayed or clicked by the device's user and kind of content andwhat category (keywords, GPS, topographical, terrestrial locations,etc.) of content may be inserted into the content page (2650).

If the electronic device (2600) is connected with a server computer(2615), the server computer (2615) may do the accounting and thedistribution of the paid content including the insertion into thedesignated area of the content page (2650). The electronic device (2600)and the server computer (2615) may work together and do the accountingand management of the paid content and the user interaction.

Instead or in addition to categories, the designated location at thecontent page may be related to the user's location (GPS, topographical,terrestrial, Zip Code, Address, City, State, Country, etc.), the user'ssupplied registration information or any user supplied information, itmay be the user's prior viewed content, the user's hobby, the user'sactivities, habits, Internet navigational history, device's navigationalhistory with content stored on the device, a GPS location based frommobile devices, or any other kind of user's activities while the user isaccessing the server computer (2615) or using the electronic device(2600). The user's activities may be logged by the server computer(2615) once the user is using the electronic device (2600) or once theuser is using any kind of device connected to the server computer (2615)and not necessarily electronic device (2600).

The present invention also can be used to make paid content a freecontent using the same method, for instance, if a paid content is ofhigh cost the user may opt to download it for free and the receivingdevice or the paid content turned free may interact with server (2516)and downloads Advertising/Goods For Sales (2610) from server (2615) andthe user interaction will be accumulated using the same method describedherein and the accumulated income for the user's interaction or purchaseis used to pay the content provider of the paid content.

The embodiment of present invention will create new industry byproviding to those who cannot afford, access of electronic devices andnew advertising medium to companies trying to reach new user base andnew market. As well, it will enable a new software industry by havingnew breed of software that automatically mix paid and non-paid contenton a sponsored electronic device. Furthermore, a new industry will berealized where companies providing paid content will work withnon-profit to provide new opportunities to those in need and reducingcarbon food print, reducing illiteracy and creating new opportunitiesand new markets.

The embodiment of the present invention may be used by any kind ofelectronic device and it may be an audio playing device, a video playingdevice, a television top set box, a stereo playing system, a televisionset, or any other device not mentioned here. The paid content (goods,services, advertising, software, etc.) may be inserted anywhere in theplaying electronic device in the beginning, in the middle or in the endof the audio, video stream or anywhere in a content page or software, atdesignated and non-designated locations. The content page may includecontent in the web page format or any other kind of content page formatas well.

For instance, if the device is a television set, paid content may bedisplayed as the user is viewing a program and the television set willreceive paid contents from the server computer (2615) to be displayed tothe user and the paid content may have links as to navigate the user toother locations in a network or the Internet. In case the televisiondevice is subsidized then the user may pay higher fee for paid contentlike a movie stream and the higher fee, the price above the actualfee-price, will be used to pay the company that subsidized thetelevision device. The business providing the subsidized electronicdevice may charge a higher price for services or goods sold to thesponsored device holder, and the higher price may be used to pay for thesubsidized device, as well, the business subsidizing the electron devicemay supplying advertisements to the subsidized electronic device as amean to get paid for the subsidized electronic device. By higher priceis meant a price that is paid over the actual price for the service,content or good. The content may be any kind of digital content or anyother kind of non-content, and it may be video, audio, software, webcontent, advertising, or any other content type not listed herein.

The subsidized electronic device may generate income in various otherways not described by this disclosure. The user of the electronic device(subsidized or not) may receive a portion of the income stream generatedby the user while the user interacts with the electronic device. If theelectronic device is subsidized then the user may only receive incomeafter the electronic device has been paid in full. It may be that aelectronic device (subsidized or not) be associated withbrick-and-mortar business or online business and once the user of theelectronic device buys services or goods from these associated business,the electronic device's owner may receive some kind of compensation andthe compensation may be in currency, redeemable points, free goods orservices or any other kind of compensation not described in thisdisclosure.

Assigning a Domain to User/Device at Registration Time

An alternative method may be implemented when computer code to implementthe algorithm of the method is stored in a non-transient storage mediumin a server computer. This method includes a step of registering a userto access the server computer. Registering typically involves the usersupplying an identification to the server computer and the servercomputer saving the user-supplied identification in the non-transientstorage medium. This method includes another step of the server computerassigning an Internet domain to the registered user. Upon receiving arequest for the user's resource stored in the server computer, theserver computer uses the assigned Internet domain to locate theregistered user's resource stored in the non-transient medium. Theserver computer assigned Internet domain may be free of any charge tothe registered user. The server computer assigned Internet domain may bebased on the registered user's identification stored in the servercomputer. The server computer assigned Internet domain may beautomatically generated by the server computer. The server computerassigned Internet domain may be chosen by the registered user.Preferably, when chosen by the registered user, the server computerassigned Internet domain is not the registered user's identificationstored in the server computer's non-transient storage medium.

Currently, the process of assigning domains is very complex requiring agreat deal of know how and costs to assign a domain to a contenthost. 1) It starts by a user co-locating a hosting space at a hostingcompany; 2) the hosting company assigning an IP (Internet Protocol)address to the hosting space; 3) if the user has a domain, the useraccesses the domain hosting company and provide the IP address for thehosting space to the hosting company; 4) the domain now points to thehosting location; 5) takes anywhere from 1-2 weeks for the wholeprocess; and, 6) high costs. After all the steps are finalized, thecontent host will have an website address in the form of “.com” which isgiven to others to access the website. The current in use processesrequire a great deal of people involved and great deal of know how, highcosts and long waiting time. Usually, the user pays one or morecompanies for the service and one or more computer technicians along theprocess of hosting a website. Furthermore, the user has to pay yearlyfee for keeping the domain thus reducing the people or business abilityto user the web.

The present invention eliminates the hindrances of the prior art byassigning a domain automatically to each registered user at the time theuser registers with the server computer. This way all of the six or moresteps associated with the prior art are eliminated or reduced.Automatically assigning a domain to any registering user will enablemore people to have presence in the Internet and have a website with adomain address without the high fees paid for the maintenance of adomain and website host, and without long waiting time delay. Thepreferred embodiment reduces complexities and expands Internet use byenabling anyone to offer services, goods for sale or content, withoutrequiring any waiting time or any technical expertise whatsoever. Thepresent invention will reduce six or more manual steps of the prior artinto one or two automated steps, thus, reducing complexities, costs andtime delay.

Present technology makes communication between domains a complexprocess. For example, a user accessing one top-level domain cannotdirectly retrieve content hosted from another domain. This is evident ina first instance where a user accesses a first domain (www.domain1.abc)and cannot directly retrieve content from a second domain(www.domain2.abc). Although there is a common method in use that enablesit, for instance with the use of web services (web-based linkages), thepresent method does not involve use of web services or web basedlinkages. When using web services, a first web service is integratedwithin the first domain (www.domain1.abc) and a second domain isintegrated within the second domain (www.domain2.abc) and once a clientrequest is received at the server of one domain, the server will executethe software (web service) of the domain and the web service will callthe web service of the other domain and receive content from.

Use of web services is complex and expensive and not many companies useit because of costs and complexities, usually only large business havethe wherewithal to implement such process for their website. Also, webservices are typically utilized because of security concerns: If onedomain were to be able to access data at another domain directly bysimply reaching out, it would be a major security flaw, so, it is onlyallowed through the use of web service because both sites will havecontrol of what to request and the supplying site will have control ofwhat to furnish. As well as the just described technology, a web servicemay only communicate with a single website at a time. If a website iscalling more than one website, the calling website will need two webservices, one for each website that it will receive content from.

Example of Web Service

A user at a client accesses “www.domain1.abc” and the client request isreceived at the server serving the website “www.domain1.abc” then theserver will execute the web service at the website “www.domain1.abc” andthe web service will call the web service of the second website“www.domain2.abc” and the web service from the website “www.domain2.abc”will fetch data from the website “www.domain2.abc” and return to thecalling website's web service “www.domain1.abc” and the data received bythe website's web service (www.domain1.abc) will make the received dataavailable to the website “www.domain1.abc”, finally, the server willinclude in a webpage data from “www.domain1.abc” and “www.domain2.abc”then return the webpage comprising data from two websites (domains) tothe calling client device.

A major limitation of the existing web service process is that it doesnot enable the distribution of domains to a variety of users (businessand individuals) because a mechanism must be in place and, as alreadydescribed, it is complex and costly. In an environment like a socialnetwork, a shopping mall or a portal where great number of users areregistered and they need to have their contents associated with thecontent of other users, the currently in use methods and technologieswill not work since one domain will not be able to access anotherdomain, thus the purpose of sharing content amongst users is simply notpossible.

An embodiment of the present method enables multiple domains to sharedata with each other without the use of web service, instead of usingweb service, the web server access a database shared by all users. Forinstance, in an environment such as a social network, each user willhave a domain and still be able to share content from other user'sdomains. With the present method, there are two ways of enabling onedomain to fetch contents from a plurality of other domains, and theyare: 1) the web server at the server computer will not use web service,instead, it will fetch contents directly from a database shared by allusers; or, 2) a web service available to a calling domain (first webservice) will be able to call another web service (second web service)and the “second web service” will be able to fetch data from a databasecontaining the associated user's data (associated with the first user)then return the data to the “first web service”. If used in a socialnetwork environment, the returned data may be like names, pictures ofothers users associated with the first user. The second web servicefetches data from a database that is common to all users in the socialnetwork.

By assigning a domain name to an electronic device will enable users andother devices to access the electronic device and view contents hostedby the device or to execute applications hosted by the device. This waya device like a refrigerator will not only be able to communicate withother devices, but it will be able to communicate with a server computerand order groceries that the refrigerator needs. Or, the refrigeratorwill be able to present a list of the groceries that are in the deviceto a user accessing the refrigerator from another device, like apersonal device.

The groceries in the refrigerator may be marked with RF (RadioFrequency) tag technology, or other technologies that will enable therefrigerator to read its contents. In this particular example, thegroceries becomes the contents of the refrigerator and the refrigeratorwill be able to host programs to help manage its contents, and theprogram may be programmed using web technologies or any other availableor to be developed technologies.

In a preferred embodiment, the computer device comprises anon-transitory storage medium and the computer device is a home device,wireless device, office device, outdoors device, industrial device orany device that a domain is assigned to and the device is not a serverthe computer. The assigning a domain for the computer device will enableusers at the device or other connected devices to access the device'scontent or to run a program at the device, the programs are executed bythe device and preferably in the web format (but can be in any otherformat) which are supported and executed by the device platform, thesame applies to the device's contents which preferably are in the webformat (but can be in any other format) and processed by the device'splatform under the domain name of the device. Basically, by adding adomain to a device, it will change the device from an inactive deviceinto an active device, able to serve its contents or executing itsprogram just like a server computer.

The domain name may be assigned to any kind of user. The user may be aperson, a business, an electronic device, or any other object or entityrequesting an assigned domain name. The assigned domain name is for thepurpose of enabling a computer device to host content to be consumed byother computer devices or by the hosting device. The content host isassociated with the assigned domain name.

Example with Content Hosts

FIG. 4 illustrates three content hosts and they are: “Content ProviderA” and the domain name “contentprovidera.abc” assigned to it (406);Content Provider B″ and the domain name “contentproviderb.abc” assignedto it (418); and, Content Provider C″ and the domain name“contentproviderc.abc” assigned to it (410). “Content Provider A”(contentprovidera.abc) (406) makes its hosted content “Dynamic ContentA-2” (408) available to “Content Provider C” (contentproviderc.abc)(410), the association of “Dynamic Content A-2” (408) to the contenthost “Content Provider C” (contentproviderc.abc)(410) may be done byeither content hosts. It may be that “Content Provider C”(contentproviderc.abc) (410) initiates communication with “ContentProvider A” (contentprovidera.abc) then requests and receive “DynamicContent A-2” (408) from “Content Provider A” (contentprovidera.abc)(406), or, it may be done that “Content Provider A”(contentprovidera.abc) (406) initiates communication with “ContentProvider C” (contentproviderc.abc) (410) and transmits “Dynamic ContentA-2” (408) to “Content Provider C” (contentproviderc.abc) (410) then“Content Provider C” (contentproviderc.abc) (410) saves the receivedcontent as need in its non-transitory storage medium. The sameexplanation applies, mutatis mutandis, to “Content Provider B”(contentproviderb.abc) 418, “Dynamic Content B-1” (416).

Virtual Host Distributor/Aggregator

Content piracy is so widespread that content producers, contentproviders, content writers (from now on content provider) loose a greatdeal of income since fewer and fewer users use their content by alegitimate means. The reasons that content piracy is so widespread isbecause content usually are expensive to a lot of average users and costof copying content is cheap. To be able to solve the problem of contentpiracy, availability and affordability of contents it is necessary thatcontent is readily available and inexpensive for all users and at thesame time a mechanism must be in place as not to allow the copying ofcontent.

It is the object of the present invention to address the aforementionedhindrances and providing means for content distribution where a singlecopy of a copyrighted content exists at any given time without allowingthe content to be copied and pirated. As well, by having a greaternumber of users using contents in a legitimate means it will reducecosts related to content distribution.

The present invention relates to a method of distributing contentsonline over a network/Internet where a single copy of the copyrightedcontent is always available at the content distributor. It works like asharing rack where the rack has contents from a plurality of users andonce a user places the content into the distributor's electronic contentrack the content is deleted/disabled at the user's rack, thus leaving anempty slot at the user's rack, that is, the user's rack will no longerhave the content and the content is at the distributor's electroniccontent rack and available to another user. Now the user with an emptyslot in his/her rack will be able to download another content to fillthe empty rack's slot, thus, preventing content piracy and have abroader content base available to a broader user base.

It works very similar to a home content rack like a CD rack. At a homecontent rack the owner (first owner who purchased the CD) of the rackmay remove a CD from the rack and gives it to someone else (secondowner) and the receiver of the CD may use it without infringing thecopyright of the CD and this happens because there only one copy of theCD available. Since the first owner purchased the CD and while a singlecopy of the CD existed with the first owner then the first owner coulduse it without infringing a copyright for the CD since a single copyexisted. After the first owner gave the CD to a second owner, the firstowner could no longer use the CD thus not infringing any copyright sincethe CD no longer is in the possession of the first owner. The CD thenbelonged to the second owner and again, a single copy existing and thesecond owner may use the CD without infringing any copyright.

The only difference is that instead being physical rack as a CD rack athome, the embodiment of this invention deals with electronic contentrack. The content type may be any kind of content in the digital formincluding but not limited to: audio, video, e-books, software or anykind of digital content. The electronic content rack may be stored in apersonal device like smart phones, any kind of mobile devices, personalpad, personal computer, etc. In addition to the personal electroniccontent rack there is a distributor content rack and it may be storedand manage by a server computer where other device having an electroniccontent rack may communicate with the server to pass content to theserver so the server may store them in the distributor's content rackand once stored in the distributor's content rack the content will beavailable to other users. After a user supplies content to thedistributor's electronic rack the content is deactivated/disabled at theuser's device and may no longer be used by the user or any other user atthe user's device having the user's electronic content rack. Thus, asingle content copy will always exist and content piracy is avoided.

The user electronic content rack starts with zero content, that is, therack is empty. Once the user buys the first content than the rack getsincremented and as the user buys more content the rack grows accordinglyto the number of purchased contents. Let's now proceed with ourexplanation of the two users: “User A” and “User B”. Let's furtherassume that each one has one paid-content each: “Content A” for “User A”and “Content B” for “User B”. Now after each user has enjoyed theircontent and no longer wants them they can exchange the content withoutinfringing the content's copyright. Let's say “User A” places “ContentA” at the distributor's electronic content rack and “User B” places“Content B” at the distributor's electronic content rack as well. Bythis example, “User A” electronic content rack is empty, so is “User B”electronic content rack and the distributor's electronic content racknow has two content's “Content A” and “Content B”.

Since “User A” as well as “User B” has rightfully paid for theirrespective content they can rightfully exchange them with whomever theywant. Let's further assume that “User A” goes to the distributor'selectronic content rack and loads “Content B”; the distributor'selectronic content rack now only has one content, “Content A”. “User B”now downloads “Content A” from the distributor's electronic contentrack. The distributor's electronic content rack will have zero contentbut the two contents got legally exchanged and without infringing anycopyrights since the two users still has the same number of contentsthat they have rightfully purchased. Except “User A” has “Content B”which was originally owned by “User B”. “User B” has “Content A” whichwas originally owned by “User A”.

The system can be set up as to allow a small fee for the exchangedcontents, this way the content provider and content producers still makemoney and without content piracy. The user still has a broader base ofcontent without having to spend a lot more money as it is done withtoday's methods in common use where users end up buying a great deal ofcontents costing a great sum of money and soon or later those contentsbecomes obsolete, music and video is just one good example, and someusers resort to content piracy to be able to have access to differentcontents.

By having contents at a distributor's electronic content rack andavailable online twenty-four hours a day, anyone will not resort tocontent piracy. Furthermore, the content may be in a format that onlyspecific devices will be able to reproduce them, for instance, usingencryption, hashing function or other methods that produce the same orsimilar result. The embodiment of the present invention works verysimilar as to the exchanging used contents, as done everywhere. This isdone quite often and one good example is the exchange of books where onebook owner exchanges books with other book owner. Since at any givenmoment, there is only one copy of the used book, copyright is thereforeenforced and a greater number of book readers have access to a greaternumber of used books.

As contents are added to the distributor's electronic rack and oncecontents start being replicated then the embodiment of the inventionwill always keep a single copy of the content stored in the servercomputer and increment a counter for the content. As the same content isrequest by other user's electronic content rack, the counter getsdecremented and once the counter reaches the value of zero the contentbecomes unavailable for exchange but the content still may be sold forits full retail price. As well, the embodiment of this invention maycharge a smaller fee for the exchange of content.

For instance, if the original content costs $2 dollars and the exchangedcontent may cost the receiving user $0.25 cents of the dollar. Theprovider may keep a portion, the content holder (contentproducer/provider) may keep a portion and the user who supplied thecontent may keep another portion of the generated income of $0.25 centsof the dollar. As it is clear from this example, the user downloadingthe content will pay a fraction of the cost of the original price forthe content but the content provider still makes a profit, so do thecontent distributor and the user uploading the content for exchange.

In our discussion the terms “electronic rack” and simply “Rack” asdescribed while explaining FIG. 27-29 are intended to have the samemeaning. If the term “Rack” is to have another meaning like a home rackit will be described as “home rack” or “physical rack”.

FIG. 27 illustrates the preferred embodiment of the present inventionand it is what we've discussed so far. It illustrates the rack system(2700) (we'll be explaining group ‘A’ (2702)) along with two users'rack. “User A Rack” (2708) comprising four contents: “Content A” (2710),“Content B” (2704), “Content C” (2706) and “Content D” (2712). Now,“User A” makes two contents (“Content A (2710) and Content B (2704)”)from “User A” electronic content rack (User A Rack (2708)) available tothe “Distributor Rack' (2714) and they are: “Content A” (2720) and“Content B” (2722). As we proceed, also there is a second user with“User B Rack” (2724) and it has four contents as well, and they are:“Content 1” (2726), “Content 2” (2728), “Content 3” (2730) and “Content4” (2732). User of “User B Rack” (2724) makes two contents available to“Distributor Rack” (2714) and they are: “Content 1” (2726) and “Content2” (2718).

Now, “Distributor Rack” (2714) has four contents, two from each user,but before this action, it was empty without any contents (not shown).As we'll see next (group ‘B’ (2734)), the “User A Rack” (2708) has twoempty slots (2710-a and 2704-a) and they are the place where the twocontents were before they were sent (made available) to the distributorrack (2714). The same is true with “User B Rack” (2724) and it has twoempty slots as well (2726-a and 2728-a) and they are where the contentswere before they were made available to the distributor rack or uploadedto the distributor rack (2714).

Continuing with group ‘C’ (2756) and we see “User A Rack” (2708)receiving two contents from the “Distributor Rack” (2714) and they are:“Content 1” (2758) and “Content 2” (2760) which were hosted by “User BRack” (2724-group “A” (2702)). As we analyze, the same happens to “UserB Rack” (2724) it has two new contents and they are: “Content A” (2776)and “Content B” (2778) which were previously hosted by “User A Rack”(2708-group “A” (2702)). Proceeding with group ‘C’ (2756) we see that“User A Rack” (2708) still has two of its original contents and theyare: “Content C” (2706) and “Content D” (2712). The same with “User BRack” (2724), it still has “Content 3” (2730) and “Content 4” (2732) andthey are original paid contents as well.

Finally, group D′ (2784) illustrates the “Distributor Rack” (2714) andit is empty (2790, 2794, 2788 and 2792) at this time since all of itscontents were distributed to the “User A Rack” (2708) and “User B Rack”(2724). As we see, the contents are distributed from a centralizedlocation “Distributor Rack” (2714) and each content user (buyer ofcontent) will be able to enjoy a great deal more of contents withoutinfringing content's copyrights and the holder of the copyrightedcontent will have a great deal more users enjoying their contents andpaying a smaller fee for the exchange, thus generating more revenues tothe content provider.

“Distributor Rack” (2714) is now an empty (2790, 2794, 2788 and 2792)but by being empty doesn't mean that it doesn't have any content it mayhave all of its contents stored at the server computer, except the rackshow empty for the purpose of exchanging the content, but the contentsstill are available for sale for its retail price. By denoting anempty-rack space it means that if a counter is associated with the racklocation, the counter has reached the value of zero thus denoting anempty rack. If a counter is used to control content availability forexchange, every time the same content is made available to the servercomputer, the counter associated with the rack's location for thecontent is incremented and at anytime a content is made available to auser, the counter associated with the rack location where the content isstored will be decremented. The rack space may be a database table andthe counter may be on the same row where the content is stored in thedatabase table. The content and the counter may be stored on a disk unitor in a file as well.

A user rack may be a user's device like video player, music player,personal computer, mobile device, smart phone, tablet, wireless nodedevice or any kind of electronic device storing the user's electronicrack. The device storing the user's electronic rack may have a softwareprogram stored therewith and used to manage the user's rack at theelectronic device. The management includes downloading content,uploading content, enabling content, disabling content, purchasingcontent, exchanging content, and any other operation related to theuser's electronic rack.

We started by presenting the teachings of the preferred embodiment ofthe invention where the distributor's electronic content rack is used toreceive and distribute content between content users. As well we'vestated that the content user will not be able to copy the content anddistribute it in an illegal way as pirate content. As well, it is withinthe scope of the preferred embodiment of the present that content may beencoded in a way that only specific devices able to decode and use it,or the device may be built in such way that the device will not allowcontent that were not obtained legally to be placed in the user'selectronic content rack, this is easily done by the use of software andit may be done by the same software that manages the user's electroniccontent rack. Encoding and/or decoding content is an option but not arequirement.

FIG. 28 illustrates the “Distributor Rack” 2714 with “Contents A1-41”(2812-2826). “Contents A1-D1” (2812-2818) are sold to “User A1 Rack”(2708) and at the “User A1 Rack” (2708) they are: “Contents A1 A-D1A”(2802-2808), and “User B1 Rack” (2724) has purchased “Content 11 B-41 B”(2830-2836). This step takes place once users are buying contents fortheir respective devices, that is, when they buy their original contentcopy. As we'll see shortly, this process eliminates content replication,packaging and distribution since only one copy will available at thedistributor's electronic content rack at any given time.

Once a user purchases content and after the content is downloaded, it ismade available to the user's electronic content rack, the content willbe present at both the user's electronic content rack and thedistributor's electronic content rack. For instance, “User A1 Rack”(2708) has “Content A1 A-D1A” (2802-2808), the same contents are stillavailable at “Distributor Rack” (2714) as “Content A1-D1” (2812-2818).The same explanation applies to “User B1 Rack” (2724) and it has“Content 11 B-41 B” (2830-2836), and the same contents are stillavailable at “Distributor Rack” (2714) and they are: “Content 11-41”(2820-2826). In this particular embodiment the contents are replicatedat the distributor's electronic content rack and at the user'selectronic content rack, but all contents are purchased contents and nocontent piracy involved. The user's electronic content rack may behosted at the same server computer hosting the distributor's electroniccontent rack, or any of these electronic racks may be hosted in one ormore computer in a cloud-computing environment.

The embodiment of the present invention may be implemented where aprogram stored in the device having the user electronic content rack andthe stored program reads paid content not supplied by the contentdistributor's electronic content rack, and make the read contentavailable (transmit) to the content distributor's electronic contentrack and deletes the transmitted contents from the user's electroniccontent rack. It may also be implemented where a software running inanother computer and the computer attached to the electronic devicereads the device's paid content and make them available (transmit) tothe content distributor's electronic content rack and deletes thetransmitted contents from the user's electronic content rack. In eithercase, only a single copy of the paid content will exist.

The term “electronic content rack” is to be interpreted broadly as toinclude database, files or any other kind of storage means. The usersparticipating in the exchange of content program is preferablyregistered with the server computer controlling the distributor'selectronic content rack, but the registration process may happen at anyother electronic device, server computer, client computer or acombination of both. If it is a combination of server computer andclient computer than the registration is split amongst them.

Although the methods have advantages as described herein, it should beunderstood that various changes, substitutions and alterations could bemade herein without departing from the true spirit and scope of theinvention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of thepresent application is not intended to be limited to the particularembodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter,means, methods, computer software and steps described in thespecification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readilyappreciate from the disclosure of the present invention, processes,machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, computersoftware, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed thatperform substantially the same function or achieve substantially thesame result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may beutilized according to the present invention. Accordingly, the appendedclaims are intended to include within their scope such processes,machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, computersoftware or steps.

1. A method of a server computer assigning a domain to a user, and usingdirect domain to domain content transfers to enable a first user'scontent to be directly associated with a second user's content, themethod comprising the steps of: providing a server computer comprisingnon-transitory storage medium; receiving at the server computer a firstrequest from a first user to register with the server computer;registering the first user, wherein registering is performed by theserver computer, and wherein the registering comprises assigning a firstuser identification to the first user, said first user identificationstored on the non-transitory storage medium; assigning a first domain tothe first user that is registered, wherein assigning is performed by theserver computer; wherein the first domain is assigned a domain name thatis chosen by the first user, or that is supplied by the server computer,or that is the first user identification; receiving at the servercomputer a second request from a second user to register with the servercomputer; registering the second user, wherein registering is performedby the server computer, wherein the registering comprises assigning asecond user identification to the second user, said second useridentification stored on the non-transitory storage medium; assigning asecond domain to the second user that is registered, wherein assigningis performed by the server computer; wherein the second domain isassigned a domain name that is chosen by the second user, or that issupplied by the server computer, or that is the second useridentification; managing the first domain that was assigned, whereinmanaging is performed by the server computer, and wherein managingcomprises the server computer assigning a first content to the firstdomain; wherein the first content is provided by the first user;managing the second domain that was assigned, wherein managing isperformed by the server computer, and wherein managing comprises theserver computer assigning a second content to the second domain; whereinthe second content is provided by the second user; receiving a requestfrom a client for the first content at the first domain at the servercomputer; and fetching and returning the first content from the firstdomain and the second content from the second domain to the client,wherein fetching and returning is performed by the server computerwithout using web-based linking.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein the step of assigning the domain to the first user that isregistered and the second user that is registered is performed free ofcharge to the first user and to the second user.
 3. The method accordingto claim 1, further comprising the step of associating an e-mail addresswith the domain assigned to the first user, wherein associating isperformed by the server computer.
 4. The method according to claim 1,further comprising the step of associating an e-mail address with thedomain assigned to the second user, wherein associating is performed bythe server computer.
 5. A method of a client device registering withserver computer and the server computer assigning a domain to thecomputer device, the method comprising the steps of: providing a servercomputer comprising a non-transitory storage medium; registering acomputer device with the server computer; assigning a domain for thecomputer device, wherein assigning is performed by the server computer;storing the domain assigned for the computer device on thenon-transitory storage medium, wherein storing is performed by theserver computer; managing the domain assigned for the computer device,wherein managing is performed by the server computer; and using thedomain assigned for the computer device to make a program or a contentstored in the non-transitory storage medium available to the computerdevice and consumable by the computer device.
 6. A method of filteringcontent on a specific of top-level domain and using direct domain todomain content transfers without using web-based linkages, the methodcomprising the steps of: providing a server computer; enabling aplurality of content hosts hosted on the server computer to have a oftop-level domain associated with each of the plurality of content hosts;at least a first content host from said plurality of content hostshaving a first top-level domain; at least a second content host fromsaid plurality of content hosts having a second top-level domain;receiving at the server computer a request for content from a clientdevice; using the first top-level domain as reference and searchingcontent on to the top level domain from the plurality of content hosts,wherein using and searching is performed by the server computer;retrieving a content from the first content host, wherein the retrievingis performed by the server computer; and transmitting the content to theclient device, wherein the transmitting is performed by the servercomputer.
 7. A method of a server computer assigning a domain to a user,and using direct domain to domain content transfers to enable a firstuser's content to be directly associated with a second user's contentand a third user's content, the method comprising the steps of:providing a server computer comprising non-transitory storage medium;receiving at the server computer a first request from a first user toregister with the server computer; registering the first user, whereinregistering is performed by the server computer, and wherein theregistering comprises assigning a first user identification to the firstuser, said first user identification stored on the non-transitorystorage medium; assigning a first domain to the first user that isregistered, wherein assigning is performed by the server computer;wherein the first domain is assigned a domain name that is chosen by thefirst user, or that is supplied by the server computer, or that is thefirst user identification; receiving at the server computer a secondrequest from a second user to register with the server computer;registering the second user, wherein registering is performed by theserver computer, wherein the registering comprises assigning a seconduser identification to the second user, said second user identificationstored on the non-transitory storage medium; assigning a second domainto the second user that is registered, wherein assigning is performed bythe server computer; wherein the second domain is assigned a domain namethat is chosen by the second user, or that is supplied by the servercomputer, or that is the second user identification; receiving at theserver computer a third request from a third user to register with theserver computer; registering the third user, wherein registering isperformed by the server computer, and wherein the registering comprisesassigning a third user identification to the third user, said third useridentification stored on the non-transitory storage medium; assigning athird domain to the third user that is registered, wherein assigning isperformed by the server computer; wherein the third domain is assigned adomain name that is chosen by the third user, or that is supplied by theserver computer, or that is the third user identification; managing thefirst domain that was assigned, wherein managing is performed by theserver computer, and wherein managing comprises the server computerassigning a first content to the first domain; wherein the first contentis provided by the first user; managing the second domain that wasassigned, wherein managing is performed by the server computer, andwherein managing comprises the server computer assigning a secondcontent to the second domain; wherein the second content is provided bythe second user; managing the third domain that was assigned, whereinmanaging is performed by the server computer, and wherein managingcomprises the server computer assigning a third content to the thirddomain; wherein the third content is provided by the third user;associating a first web-based link to the first domain, whereinassociating is performed by the server computer; associating a secondweb-based link to the second domain and third domain, whereinassociating is performed by the server computer; receiving a requestfrom a client for the first content at the first domain at the servercomputer; fetching the first content from the first domain, whereinfetching is performed by the server computer; accessing the firstweb-based link and the first web-base link connecting with the secondweb-base link, wherein accessing and connecting is performed by theserver computer; receiving from the second web-based link the secondcontent and the third content, wherein receiving is performed by theserver computer; and returning the first content, the second content andthe third content to the client, wherein returning is performed by theserver computer.
 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the step ofassigning the domain to the first user that is registered, the seconduser that is registered and the third user that is registered isperformed free of charge to the first user that is registered, to thesecond user that is registered, and to the third user that isregistered.
 9. The method according to claim 7, further comprising thestep of associating an e-mail address with the domain assigned to thefirst user, wherein associating is performed by the server computer. 10.The method according to claim 7, further comprising the step ofassociating an e-mail address with the domain assigned to the seconduser, wherein associating is performed by the server computer.
 11. Themethod according to claim 7, further comprising the step of associatingan e-mail address with the domain assigned to the third user, whereinassociating is performed by the server computer.
 12. A method of aclient device registering with a server computer and the server computerassigning a domain to the client device, the client device comprising aprocessor connected to the Internet and a non-transitory storage medium,the method comprising the steps of: receiving a request from the clientdevice for a domain name; assigning a domain name to the client devicetransforming the client device to an active device able to serve contentor to execute a program on the processor; and using the domain nameassigned to the client device to make available to a second clientdevice a program or other content stored in the non-transitory storagemedium. using the domain name assigned to the client device to makeavailable to a user at the client device a program or other contentstored in the non-transitory storage medium.